CCIH Members’ voices heard on Capitol Hill
CCIH’s First Advocacy Day held on Monday, June 13 in Washington, DC

Twenty-four CCIH Members representing 9 countries (Germany, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, USA ) and including 11 US states (Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia), came together on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC to share the work faith-based organizations are doing all over the world. They visited 25 Congressional offices advocating for the importance of global health funding to improve the health and wholeness of communities all over the world. Pictures from the day can be found on CCIH's Facebook page.

CCIH member, Pamela Mukaire shares:

Two hours later, sitting at a round table with two congress staffers and my team members, sharing stories of my work in rural Uganda, I realized that my experiences completed the circle. Each of the four members on my team stood at a distinct service point … one who was a direct recipient of USA government funding; one who had oversight over several FBOs contracted to do the work; I, who was working with the woman who receives contraceptives from USA money; another, a researcher who reports what we all do and how we do it; and the Congressional staffers who make the case for continued funding for the programs we give our labor of love.

"Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is one of our two senators from Indiana, so we were actually very well received by Shellie, his senior staffer. Hope made a convincing team member and so did Paul, a program administrator from Malawi who was able to share how U.S. funding to faith-based organizations had already made a notable difference in his country.

We had been hoping for at best 15 minutes in Senator Lugar's office, but Shellie spent almost a full hour with us. We are very grateful for her interest and often felt like we were "preaching to the choir." It was the Lord's blessing in answer to our prayers that characterized the rest of the afternoon.

Really, the entire afternoon could not have gone better. We were well-received and well-heard in both Republican and Democratic offices, and feel like some helpful initial contacts were successfully established. We discovered that advocacy is rewarding work when it is on a topic you are about."

 

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CCIH recent graduate member, Amanda Leahy shares:

 

 

"I feel truly blessed to have been able to participate in CCIH's Advocacy Day. I recently completed my graduate studies in Theology and Global Health at Duke University. Though I have taken policy courses, it was a completely new and enthralling experience for me to "be on the Hill." My previous experience working in Kenya put the issue of health equity and gender on my heart. I currently work in monitoring and evaluation as a maternal and child health data anaylst. While participating in Advocacy Day, I was transformed from a data analyst to a story-teller. It was the individual stories of Kenyan men, women and children that represent the stark reality of millions."