Top Ten Ways to Reclaim Mother's Day!!

What is the sound of mothers Arising?

This Mother's Day, MAU Mavens across the country will be strapping on stilts, baking pies for elected leaders, hawking fair trade roses and singing in the streets! Reclaiming Mother's Day events - now in their sixth season - celebrate Julia Ward Howe's 1870 Mother's Day Proclamation. This year, MAU invites YOU to celebrate her call to Arise by gathering your family and community together through cakewalks, letters to the editor, Standing Women events, mama's open-mic nights, or . . . the sky and your imagination is the limit! When mothers* publicly express our commitment to children, our communities, media and government sit up and take notice. Let's sing it out in the streets, "We will protect our children with our personal & political strength - wherever they live on earth."

Thanks to MAU Mavens and partner organizations, MAU is excited to present the very 1st ever "Top 10 Ways to Reclaim Mother's Day":

1. Holy Symbolism! Step outside your comfort zone, and get up on stilts. Parade, prance and promenade with a loyal spotter by your side. When we lift our voices AND our bodies together on behalf of the world's children, we become a GIGANTIC force to be reckoned with.

2. Dare to be a Joy Warrior! Deliver pies to your local members of Congress as part of the Department of Peace's 4th Annual Mother's Day National Action: Peace Wants a Piece of the Pie Campaign.

3. Posies with a purpose: Ask for or send fair trade flowers through Transfair/USA. Fair trade benefits every person along the path, from seed in the ground to blossom in the vase.

4. Review Save the Children's State of the World's Mothers Report (2008 report availably May 6). Learn simple solutions to stop the deaths of nearly 10 million children a year; educate your community with a letter to the editor on this topic.

5. Part your purse strings, because giving matters. Donate to MAU, inspiring and mobilizing mothers* to advocate on behalf of the world's children. Your donation, in honor of a mother or other, allows MAU to reach out to a million mamas with templates, tools and recipes for actions that prioritize the lives of our children.

6. Press the candidates for Prez to take action for the world's children. Take a photo of your family at brunch this Mother's Day and send to the presidential candidates, letting them know you are a Mother Acting Up who wants Global Action for Children.

7. There is an elegant beauty to simplicity. Stand with Standing Women at 1 pm (your local time) on May 11 in support of a better world for our children.

8. Host a 1Sky climate change event, make a banner calling for serious climate action and then upload pictures and drawings of your children and families alongside the banner as part of a national call to action to Congress.

9. Join with CodePink mamas at the Mother's Day Picnic for Peace in Washington, DC's Dupont Circle, walk across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, or gather at Merchant's Gate at Columbus Circle in Manhattan for the 2nd Annual Mother's Day Peace Stroll.

10. Find a MAU Mother's Day Reclamation event near you, and revel in it, mama! Gather round, hand out Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation, eat cake, birth strategic plans to act locally and think globally. Together, we can change the world.

Most important, report word of your reclamation activities to MAU Central!

Arise, all women who have hearts!

More than merely Mother's Day

Mothers Acting Up hosts its annual downtown parade Sunday

By Jennifer Bronson, Camera Staff Writer
Saturday, May 10, 2008

Photo by Cliff Grassmick

Erika Shafroth, left, and Joellen Raderstorf, share a laughwhile on stilts before the Mothers Acting Up parade. The Fifth Annual Mother's Acting Up Parade was held Sunday (Mother's Day) in downtown Boulder. The parade was held to "mobilize the gigantic strength of mothers on behalf of the world's children."

Some mothers in Boulder want Mother's Day to be more than an excuse for flowers and breakfast in bed.

The members of Mothers Acting Up say they are "re-claiming" Mother's Day, taking it back to its historic roots as a day of female activism.

Instead of celebrating the day with a leisurely brunch, the organization's members hope that mothers in Boulder will come together at the seventh annual Reclaim Mother's Day parade to demonstrate the strength mothers have when united for a cause.

The parade will begin at the Boulder Public Library at 1 p.m. Sunday and end at the Pearl Street Mall. The annual Mother's Day events organized by Mothers Acting Up were inspired by a declaration made by Julia Ward Howe after the Civil War, when she called for a day when mothers would unite across boundaries to protect their global family.

In her Mother's Day proclamation, Howe said: "Arise, arise, all women who have hearts!"(...more)

MAU Guest Commentary in the Denver Post.

guest commentary

Reclaiming Mother's Day

By Juliana Forbes

Article Last Updated: 05/08/2008 06:15:33 PM MDT

Americans are unabashedly celebrity obsessed, following the ups and downs of every star with greedy devotion. One focus of our devotion is Angelina Jolie, whose adventures the proverbial "woman on the street" tracks more closely than the weather. And "especially in the case of Angelina" what's wrong with that? In recent weeks, as she shared publicly about her current pregnancy for the first time, she also spoke up for the rights of children in Iraq. Julia Ward Howe would be delighted.

Julia Ward Howe was a suffragette and poet who, after witnessing the horrors of the Civil War, said one question haunted her. "Why do not the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?" In 1870, she wrote a Mother's Day Proclamation, calling women to unite on a day she named Mother's Day, to protect our common global family.

Julia wrote, Arise, arise, all women who have hearts! but somewhere along the way, breakfast in bed eclipsed this fiery call to activism. But all is not lost! After decades of burnt toast and loving messages, mothers have been sufficiently fortified and are beginning to fulfill Julia's vision. Mother's Day is again becoming a holiday when we not only honor our mothers, but their role in shaping our world.

Our global family is at risk, yet often mothers "due to laws or societal norms" remain outside political circles. In a world in which every other child lives in poverty; almost half of all war causalities are children; and global warming threatens all future generations, the world needs mothers to interfere to get involved in creating policies that protect and nurture children.

Fortunately, mothers are stepping into new leadership roles in every country in the world, from Angelina Jolie saying, "Every child has a right to education, and conflict is not a reason to ignore that," to Massouda Jalal, the first woman to run for President in Afghanistan, who works to educate all children, especially attending to the empowerment of girls. Writing in the 2008 Mothers Acting Up calendar, Massouda says, "My candidacy led the Afghan community to realize women can be leaders and led Afghan women to develop a political consciousness."

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation urges women to, solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace . Mothers are questioning why half our federal discretionary budget is spent on "security" without any significant percentage allocated for the prevention of conflict. Mothers and Generals agree that a security portfolio should include funding for education and development, including our promised share of the UN Millennium Development Goals (eight international targets to end extreme poverty). As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently said, "We must focus our energies beyond the guns and steel of the military."

Now, if this is sounding really earnest and somber, not to worry: there are stilts involved. Around the country this spring, Mother's Day will be celebrated by reclaiming Julia Ward Howe's original vision in parades, radio shows and picnics in the park. There will be free cake, mothers on stilts (symbolizing rising up!), beautiful hats and hoop skirts, decorated tricycles and calls to Congressional Members. This Mother's Day, whether you are up on stilts or reading a fan magazine about Angelina Jolie, remember the spirit of Julia Ward Howe and heed her call to "Arise" on behalf of the world's children.

Juliana Forbes is a mother of two and co-founder of Boulder-based Mothers Acting Up, an NGO with members in all 50 states and 23 countries, working to inspire and mobilize mothers (and others) to advocate on behalf of the world's children.

Guest commentary submissions of up to 650 words may be sent to openforum@denverpost.com. This online-only guest commentary has not been edited.

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MAU Executive Director on public radio's A Public Affair at noon central Friday 5/9.

Tomorrow at noon (Central Daylight Time) MAU co-founder and Executive Director Joellen Raderstorf will be on a very special Mother's Day edition of WORT public radio's A Public Affair with hosts Diane Farsetta and Judith Siers-Poisson of Madison, Wisconsin.

From the WORT website:

A Public Affair

A Public Affair aims to engage listeners in a conversation on issues of international, national, & local importance with some novelty shows thrown in. The guests range from local activists and scholars to notable national & international figures. The hosts alternate throughout the week as do the focuses and topics. It is a call-in show that airs Monday through Friday from 12:05 to 1:00 pm.

Make sure to tune in online!!

Kids Aren't Cute.

Stand with Standing Women on Sunday at 1 PM your local time.

Empowered mothers change the world

MAU co-founder and program director Beth Osnes was in Toronto last week to perform (M)other for the Mother Outlaws' ARM (Association for Research on Mothering) conference. The below article, from the Times & Transcript details the conference and talks about MAU's role in feminism and in mothering.

Empowered mothers change the world

Published Thursday May 8th, 2008

Motherhood should not impoverish you. Mothers are people too. Children are the responsibility of both parents. Every child a wanted child. Motherwork is work.

Much of the women's movement has been about those issues, about motherwork.

Mothers remain the main movers behind the movement. A fight for mothers to be valued, for a world where parenting was shared between the sexes and supported by the community.

Giving women more options -- at the core of the movement -- has meant changing attitudes and sometimes laws so that women could have children as well as a job, or not have children, or not be penalized for choosing to take care of children.(.... more here)

Annual State of Mothers Report issued by Save the Children.

The full on media version of the report can be accessed by clicking below. For ease of digestion, highlighted pieces of the report, including the report card of best and worst places to be a mother are below the multimedia version-- note that the United States of America does NOT fall into either the best OR worst places to be a mother. For the full report, visit Save The Children.

2008 Mothers' Index Rankings
Top 10 Best places to be a mother				Bottom 10 Worst places to be a mother
RANK		Country		RANK		Country
1		Sweden		137		Ethiopia
2		Norway		138		Mali
3		Iceland		139		Djibouti
4		New Zealand		140		Eritrea
5		Denmark		141		Guinea-Bissau
6		Australia		142		Angola
7		Finland		143		Sierra Leone
8		Ireland		144		Yemen
9		Germany		145		Chad
10		France		146		Niger

WESTPORT, Conn. (May 6, 2008) – More than 200 million children under age 5 do not get basic health care when they need it, with the poorest children missing out and most at risk of dying, according to the ninth annual State of the World’s Mothers report issued today by Save the Children, a U.S.-based global independent humanitarian organization.

.....

Among the report’s key findings:

• More than 200 million children under age 5 lack basic health care. Among the 55 countries evaluated in the Basic Health Care Report Card, the Philippines, Peru, South Africa and Indonesia/Turkmenistan (tied) are doing the best job in getting basic health care to all children under age 5. Countries doing the worst are Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Yemen, Chad, Somalia and Ethiopia.

• The poorest children are least likely to get lifesaving health care and are more likely to die. In Mali and Nigeria, for example, the poorest children are 2.5 times more likely to go without health care. In India and Indonesia, the poorest children are three or more times more likely to die before reaching their fifth birthday than best-off children.
• Closing health care coverage gaps could save more than 6 million children each year. If all children — rich and poor alike — were to receive a full package of essential health care, more than 6 million lives would be saved each year. Closing the survival gaps in India and Nigeria alone would prevent nearly 20 percent of global child deaths.

• In more developed countries, children most lacking in basic health care and at risk of dying tend to be from low-income, ethnic minority groups. In the United States, America-Indian and Alaska-Native infants are nearly 50 percent more likely to die than white infants, and African American infants are 2.4 times more likely to die than white infants.

In addition to its special focus on the child survival gap, the report includes Save the Children’s ninth annual Mothers’ Index, which identifies the best and worst countries to be a mother and child by looking at child and maternal well-being in 146 countries. Sweden takes top place, while Niger takes last place in the ranking. The United States places 27th.

Recommendations:

To reach more children under age 5 with basic health care measures and save lives, Save the Children recommends that countries:

• Design health care programs to better target the poorest and most marginalized mothers and children. To save lives, we need to close the coverage gap for all children, but especially the gap between the rich and poor.
• Invest in community health workers to reach the poorest of the poor with essential life-saving care. Many children die from causes that do not require doctors or hospitals, and could be saved by training, equipping and deploying more community health workers who can deliver this basic health care.
• Deliver a basic package of maternal, newborn and child health care that takes into account the realities for poor people in developing countries. The tools to save mothers’ and children’s lives work best when they are delivered together as a package and along a “continuum of care” that links communities, local health facilities and hospitals. Most health systems devote significant resources to hospital-based care, but most sick children in developing countries never make it to a hospital.

The report also calls on governments to close the child survival gap by stepping up commitments to deliver basic health care, especially to the poorest children, in developing countries. The U.S. share of this commitment, known as the Global Child Survival Act (H.R. 2266 and S1418), would help save the lives of millions of newborns, babies and young children globally. The legislation, backed by over 100 members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, is awaiting action before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. In the Senate, the legislation has been voted out of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and is poised to be considered before the full Senate.

“Each day that we wait to act on this legislation, nearly 27,000 lives are lost. We can do better,” said MacCormack. “We urge Congress to get behind this legislation and give mothers and their children the chance to celebrate Mother’s Day not only this year, but in years to come.”

For more information on the State of the World’s Mothers 2008 report, contact Save the Children at 203-221-4233. The report also will be posted at www.savethechildren.org.

Save the Children is the leading independent organization that creates lasting change for children in need in the United States and around the world. Save the Children USA is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, a global network of 28 independent Save the Children organizations working to ensure the well-being and protection of children in more than 120 countries.

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World AIDs Orphans Day: today.

It's wonderful to see so many organizations, agencies and groups embracing the plight of the world's children, and today, particularly those orphaned as a result of AIDs, the epidemic of our time. The following is from the daily 5 minutes of caring action put out by our friends at Cool People Care.

5 minutes of caring from

World AIDS Orphans Day by Sam Davidson | Wednesday, May 7, 2008

25 million. That's the number of children around the world that have lost one or both parents to AIDS. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, 10 million have been orphaned by the disease. And the numbers are expected to increase. But they don't have to. You can do your part by advocating that 10% of government AIDS spending be directed towards orphans and vulnerable children. You can support the families and communities that comprise the safety net for these children, as well as the organizations that help children living with HIV. Whatever you do, the time to speak up is now.

MAU Central's Anjali guest blogs at 1Sky....

Only 4 days left until Mother's Day weekend! Today's guest blog is from Anjali Kochar of Mothers Acting Up, a mother of two with some inspiring thoughts on our responsibility to our children this Mother's Day. Click here to start or join a 1Sky's Mother's Day gathering near you if you haven't yet!

I was in the backyard with the girls this weekend when my one and a half year old saw a butterfly flutter by. Her eyes grew big and round, her little mouth formed the word "Oh" and she darted after it. The wonder in her eyes, the excitement in her voice were priceless. The littlest things that Mother Earth has put before us can create such joy in the smallest among us!

As I sat watching her trying to catch the butterfly, I thought about my older daughter, who's 6 and a half and how we've been teaching her about preserving and respecting the environment(... more here)

MAU Seeks to Raise Awareness of Whole New Generation of Activists.

From the Colorado Daily....

Mothers Acting Up

BOULDER-BASED ORGANIZATION SEEKS TO RAISE AWARENESS AND A WHOLE NEW GENERATION OF ACTIVISTS

By DEBRA GOLDYN, Your Town Correspondent
Monday, May 5, 2008

IF YOU GO WHAT: MAU Mother's Day Parade

WHEN: Sunday, May 11, 1 p.m.

WHERE: Boulder Public Library, 1000 Canyon Blvd., Boulder, 80302; to the Pearl Street Mall

HOW MUCH: Free

ON THE WEB: www.bouldermau.blogspot.com

The environment is ailing, there's a war raging in Iraq, and there are children living in poverty around the globe. What's a concerned mother to do? Why, strap on a pair of stilts, of course.

At least that's the thinking for Mothers Acting Up (MAU), a Boulder-based global network of "mothers and others, on stilts or off, who exercise protective care over someone smaller." The group, which lists "Be Exuberant" as one of its guiding principles, seeks to mobilize that most primal of instincts--a mother's love--and turn it into a political force to be reckoned with. The stilts are just a unique way to bring attention to MAU's message of positive activism.

Stilts are "really the perfect metaphor for what we do,"(...more)