Graham Smith is a valued MSI Asia Pacific donor, whose support makes incredible things possible. Here, he shares what motivates him, makes him angry, and gives him hope.
My interest in reproductive choice began when… I had two personal experiences that framed my passion for women’s rights. The first began when I promised myself that I would travel after university and before joining ‘the establishment’.
Fortunately (and I mean fortunately), I only had enough money to get as far as Papua New Guinea, where I backpacked around the country for several months, living in small villages. It was a formative experience.
One of my clearest memories was that there seemed to be young girls and older women, but no young women. Eventually, I worked out that the young girls often had babies when they we little more than children themselves.
The “older women” were often not much older than me, but a combination of a protein deficient diet, and having many children, made them appear much older than their calendar years.
My second ‘epiphany’ was… when my daughter was born prematurely. She was released from hospital so that she could stay with my wife in a medical care facility. Here, the deep care for these vulnerable babies was palpable, and I felt that this was humanity at its very best.
But at the facility, there were also many young women with healthy babies. It seemed they’d had little choice in whether to become mothers, and they had nowhere else to go.
The despair was palpable too. Pregnancy and birth were the same biological result for both groups of mothers, but the impact – while life-changing in both cases – was the opposite.
It hit home that choice makes all the difference.
I began supporting MSI when… I fulfilled a decades-long wish to give back. Long before I retired, I knew that I wanted to support the people of Papua New Guinea, who had been so kind to me during my formative years. I knew the population had increased fourfold since I travelled there in 1972, and that rates of malnutrition and death during childbirth were amongst the highest in the world.
I engaged MSI and covered the cost of training for local maternal health workers. This training enabled them to provide family planning options to their clients and to implant contraceptive devices that are effective for around five years.
These workers develop close relationships with women during pregnancy, and a very high proportion of their clients decide to have a contraceptive implant inserted immediately after birth.
When I did some rough calculations about the cost-effectiveness of my investment in that training, I realised that preventing one unwanted pregnancy was basically no more than the price of a pub meal in Australia.
Cost: one parma. Benefit: better health and economic outcomes for a woman, her family and her community. It’s a no-brainer!
I’m motivated to continue giving to MSI because… I’ve seen the impact first-hand. When donating to MSI’s work in Cambodia, I travelled there to assess their operations myself.
The country is still recovering from a devastating genocide that occurred on an enormous scale, the effects of which are still reverberating today. I was very impressed by the country’s recovery and was totally satisfied with the cost-effectiveness of donated funds.
I also had experiences on that trip that left a lasting impression. For example, I will always remember standing in an MSI information tent outside a garment factory, when hundreds of young girls came flooding out.
These girls should have still been in school, but circumstance had dictated otherwise. Very tentatively, a few of them came to our tent to ask for much-needed help.
When I think about the impact of MSI’s work, I often think of these young women. Wherever they are now, I hope access to choice resulted in brighter futures.
I’ve chosen to leave a bequest to MSI… though in quite a non-traditional way! I intend to give much of what would otherwise be a bequest, but to do so in my own lifetime. This way, I get to see projects come to life, and I can feel that I leave this world a little better for me having been here.
I love my children and grandchildren dearly, but I don’t want to leave the majority of my estate to them. I have seen too many families destroyed by fights over inheritance. My descendants are all heathy, educated and motivated. I truly believe that they will be happier making their own way in life.
I feel angry when… powerful men dictate that women must spend the rest of their lives in physically gruelling and financially precarious situations that they have little choice in.
I feel hopeful when… I think about the dedication and resilience of the front-line staff at MSI!
Our work wouldn’t be possible without generous donors like Graham. Will you join him?