Meena Seshu, Hazera Bagum and Raju Ahmed visit USA

Date: June 28, 2007

Meena Seshu, Hazera Bagum, and Raju Ahmed spoke about the effects of US funding restrictions in New York, and then the next day in DC. The two events were well-attended - no more people could have fit in the rooms! Hazera and Raju went to Atlanta to the first US Social Forum and are there now.

The most important part of this trip was meeting with congress staff from the US Senate, House, the House Judiciary Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. We met with aides to fourteen members of congress, including Hilary Clinton. Susan Lopez-Embury came with us to the meetings, and was extremely helpful. Meena and Hazera were stars! Raju helped translate and really contributed in other ways, too. Meena, Raju and Hazera each have compelling stories to tell about the ways funding from the US has been used, and the politicos were very interested to hear about this. They asked a lot of questions and some were very appreciative of the information and materials we brought. Not all were very encouraging, but things have definitely changed since the last time anyone we know spoke about these issues to this audience.