Population Council Research that makes a difference

Tammy Allen and Dan Gropper

My husband, Dan, and I support the Population Council because I previously worked as Special Assistant to the President at the Council. We believe in the Council’s innovative approaches to reducing suffering and improving health, particularly among vulnerable populations in developing countries.

As a staff member, I worked in the New York headquarters and had the opportunity to visit Council projects in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and Mexico. I learned first-hand how the Council’s projects effectively address the most pressing needs of developing countries. For example, while in Navrongo, Ghana, I saw how the Population Council’s partnership with the Ghana Health Service succeeded in saving lives and improving access to rural health services—not just in Navrongo but across much of Ghana—by changing the focus from clinical care to high-quality health services at community and doorstep locations.

We recognize how critical it is for the Council to sustain a strong local presence through its 17 country offices, as well as maintain a corps of leading scientists and scholars from around the world. Most meaningful to us is the Council’s ability to hire and train developing-country scholars, build local capacity, and respond to emerging local needs—often addressing complex issues and establishing programs within isolated, hard-to-reach communities. In particular, the 2006 opening of the Council’s office in Khartoum was momentous in light of the inextricable conflict and health problems in Sudan. The Council is working with local partners to strengthen reproductive healthcare service delivery for internally displaced women and to improve the quality of education for girls living in refugee camps—a setting where other research organizations might not venture. Without the Population Council, these Sudanese women and girls likely would face a bleak future.

Today, Dan and I stay connected to the Population Council because we strongly believe in the value of its work and in the importance of global health initiatives. I now work at AmeriCares, an international disaster relief and humanitarian aid organization, which collaborates with the Council, for instance to bring medications as well as health and social service programs to adolescent girls in Haiti following the recent earthquake.

We know our donations to the Population Council are used wisely, responsibly, and globally. We encourage you to join us in supporting the Council, as it stands at the forefront of evidence-based, creative solutions to some of the most challenging issues confronting the world today.