Karen Gielen worked at Boeing for 27 years. She started as a parts buyer, but by the end of her career (Gielen left Boeing in May 2005), she was heading up a multinational team working on international treaties that hindered the airplane giant's ability to do global business.
Gielen said she loved the job and was good at it.
Lots of travel was involved, and along the way, Gielen couldn't help but notice how different some parts of the world were from others.
And how poor so many folks were.
That initial observation eventually spawned Gielen's desire to do something to help the poor and hungry around the globe.
Gielen joined RESULTS, whose motto is "Peace begins when hunger ends."
Global health issues
RESULTS is an international group that speaks out on global issues affecting the poor and hungry while also protecting U.S. citizens.
Currently, one RESULTS campaign is working for the expansion of TB control worldwide. Tuberculosis, along with malaria and AIDS, kills 6 million people worldwide annually. That's enough dead people to populate 10 Seattle-size cities.
TB medicine, according to RESULTS, costs only $10 per patient. Anti-malarial drugs are 12 cents per patient, and $14 buys a year's supply of condoms for people living in some of the world's poorest corners where abstinence is not a teachable option.
"Many of our poorest citizens are dying around the world because they can't get pennies worth of medical care," said Joanne Carter, RESULTS Washington, D.C.-based legislative director.
For her part, Gielen said, "I discovered in all my travels so many people from all over the world are very much alike. People are people. I decided to take my experience in international advocacy and apply it to global health and antipoverty campaigns."
Mobilization
One of RESULTS' biggest operations is mobilizing the citizenry to lobby our own government.
"If we can affect how the government spends our money...maybe if we spent our dollars helping the very abject people, they wouldn't become terrorists," Gielen said.
Gielen and other local RESULTS members hold monthly meetings and conduct letter-writing campaigns to local and national legislators.
Gielen is enthusiastic about the effect RESULTS is having on diverse issues, including education for poor rural women, across the world.
But even helping poor women get a primary education isn't easy.
"The problem is, in some places people can't pay even the minimal school fee," Gielen said. "It might be only $50 per year, but even that is impossible. One of the things we [RESULTS] are working on is getting rid of those fees entirely.
"RESULTS knows the importance of education for all. Even a primary-school education has been proven to change lives. Places where that education happens see reduced infant-mortality rates, and people live longer, too. Whole villages do better if women are given a primary-school education," she said.
Help locally
RESULTS doesn't require more than the average, already busy person can give, according to Gielen.
Although many like Gielen do more, "All a person has to do is commit about two hours a month. We have a monthly education and action meeting at the Wallingford United Methodist Church, from 7 to 9 p.m.," Gielen said.
A recent meeting - which is held in the basement at the Wallingford United Methodist Church, 2115 N. 42nd St. - featured a speaker who has been working in Africa among the poor.
"You reach a certain age and you want to try and leave the world a better place," said Gielen, the mother of two daughters, 21 and 18.
For more information, call Gielen, at 282-7165. Or go on-line to www.results. org.
[[In-content Ad]]
