Family-Planning Campaign Makes Use of Internet

By NICOLE WALLACE

The Internet plays a central role in a new campaign to raise awareness about international family planning.

The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, in Los Altos, Calif., is working with several non-profit organizations — including CARE, the National Audubon Society, and Population Action International — on a five-year advertising campaign, called Planet, that emphasizes the connections between reproductive health and women’s, children’s, and environmental issues.

In the first year of the program, the Packard Foundation will spend $13-million to create and place television, radio, and print advertisements.

The advertisements, which will encourage people to go to the campaign’s Web site, will run in cities where the participating charities have local activities, such as lectures, study groups, or advocacy efforts, to which they can refer people who are interested in the subject.

At the site, visitors can find more information about the link between family planning and other issues that they care about, go to the Web sites of the campaign’s charity partners, or send e-mail postcards with messages about the importance of family planning.

To get there: Go to http://www.familyplanet.org.