Population Media Center Joins Network Focused on Reproductive Rights and Environmental Sustainability

SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt., May 20, 2016 -- Not everyone sees the direct connection between reproductive rights and sustainability, but the Population & Sustainability Network works to change that. With headquarters in London, the Population & Sustainability Network (PSN) works to enhance the understanding of population dynamics and clearly illuminate how ensuring reproductive rights addresses population and works toward a sustainable future. With goals like these, it's no wonder that US-based nonprofit Population Media Center (PMC) wanted to join the network.

"I'm thrilled that PMC is joining the Population & Sustainability Network," says Stephanie Tholand, PMC's Director of Program and Partnership Development. "Collaborations between members and with the network's headquarters are highly encouraged. It's a tremendous resource for connecting with other organizations that recognize the connections between population, reproductive health, and the environment."

PMC has long been working at the intersection of health and human rights, population, and the environment. Founded in 1998, PMC specializes in creating entertainment that draws huge audiences and role models behavioural change over multi-episode TV or radio dramas. Their work is particularly designed to focus on rights for women and girls.

"We focus on numerous issues within a drama," says Tholand. "But our dramas almost always include storylines that change the way people think about women and girls, like sending girls to school, ending child marriage, or promoting gender equality."

PMC's work is designed to improve individual people's lives, but it's also designed to create healthier and more prosperous families and communities. It's been repeatedly proven that education and equal rights result in women having smaller, healthier families. PSN and PMC are drawing attention to this because the world is adding more than 9,000 people per hour which further stresses the already diminishing natural resources such as land, food, and water and contributes to things like emissions and waste.

"We're delighted that PMC has joined PSN and we are developing ways of working together," says David Johnson, PSN's Chief Executive. "PMC's specialization in entertainment-education is unique and we hope they find innovative and powerful ways of partnering with other PSN members."

PSN's headquarters actively coordinates advocacy projects as well as manages the network of partners. Partners represent a variety of organizational types from around the world, such as nonprofits, governmental departments, policy research organizations, and others. Some of these entities focus on development, some on the environment, some on reproductive health and some on a cross-section of these issues.

"We expect that this will be a very active and fruitful partnership," says Tholand. "We need more people talking about the intersection of reproductive health and the environment. It improves people's lives and creates a healthier planet for us all."

ABOUT POPULATION MEDIA CENTER (PMC):

Population Media Center is a nonprofit, international development organization, which strives to improve the health and well-being of people around the world through the use of entertainment-education strategies, like serialized dramas on radio and television, in which characters evolve into role models for the audience for positive behavior change. Founded in 1998, PMC has years of field experience using its entertainment-education methodology of behavior change communications, impacting more than 50 countries around the world. www.populationmedia.org

ABOUT POPULATION & SUSTAINABILITY NETWORK (PSN):

Population & Sustainability Network (PSN) is an advocacy organisation and international network that works to advance understanding of the relationships between population, health and sustainable development issues and to promote integrated approaches to these interconnected challenges. PSN brings together development, environment and reproductive health NGOs, government departments, policy research organisations and others for cross-sector discussion and collaboration to increase awareness of the significance for sustainable development of both population and consumption factors and the importance of universal access to reproductive health and rights, including voluntary family planning services. www.populationandsustainability.org

A photo accompanying this release is available at:
http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=40330

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