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Mary Ann Stein
Our first "Mrs. McCormick"
Mary Ann Stein is President of the Moriah Fund and a long-time advocate for social justice, peace in the Middle East, and women's rights. She is also our movement's first "Mrs McCormick," a title she earned by committing over $600,000 to support advocacy and public education around microbicides
In 1999, key members of the HIV and women's health community came together to launch a new initiative to mobilise resources to support microbicide advocacy and research. Traditional foundations had been relatively unwilling to sponsor the kind of sustained activism necessary to build a global movement on behalf of new woman-controlled methods of HIV prevention. So advocates decided to reach out to individual women and men of means in an effort to mobilise private wealth in support of the microbicide cause.
One day Lori Heise, Director of the Global Campaign, was reading the book 'The Pill', by Bernard Absnell. The book profiles the story of Katharine McCormick and her role in financing early research into the modern birth control pill. Early birth control enthusiasts --such as Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood-- confronted similar obstacles to what microbicide advocates face today. Tired of trying to convince Big Pharma to invest in contraceptive research, Sanger finally asked her wealthy friend Katharine McCormick to use her personal fortune to grant women control over their sexual lives.
Here was the model for the microbicides field. If the titans of industry failed to understand the importance of microbicides, then advocates should appeal directly to individuals for financial support! What we needed were Mrs. McCormicks for the new millennium that could reclaim sex from infection, in the same way the Pill liberated sexuality from the fear of unwanted pregnancy.
Armed with this new idea, Dr. Heise and other microbicide advocates decided to "field test" their fundraising appeal by seeking feedback from local women known to be sympathetic to reproductive health and rights issues. Remarkably, one of these early "practice sessions" yielded our most ardent supporter to date-Mary Ann Stein.
Mary Ann has spent her entire life working to eliminate poverty and promote social equality. During her professional career she has worked as a community organiser, a lawyer, the head of a non-profit child advocacy group, and as the president of the Moriah Fund.
In July 2001, the Global Campaign honored Mary Ann for her steadfast support of the microbicide cause. Speaking to a crowded room of over 60 advocates from 25 countries, Global Campaign Director Lori Heise observed:
"When I was contemplating this tribute, I spoke briefly to Shira Saperstein, a friend and colleague of Mary Ann's and Chair of the Global Campaign's steering committee. I asked her, if you had to select one word to describe Mary Ann what would it be?
She said - COURAGE.
I realised immediately that the adjective was perfect. In numerous ways both big and small, Mary Ann demonstrates daily her courage to take on the most complex challenges and the most entrenched social issues.
What is most inspiring is that Mary Ann does not approach people or issues out of charity but out of a profound sense of social justice. In her work, she always strives to rectify imbalances in power and move people toward self-sufficiency.
It is little wonder that microbicides captured her imagination. Here was something that for the first time would put the "power to protect" into women's hands.
Since that day MaryAnn has remained a champion of microbicides and of the Global Campaign. As one of the participants observed at Mary Ann's award dinner: "The women of the world thank you".