WVD Review 2014
On November 7th over 500 doctors in 32 countries performed an estimated 3000 vasectomies, making WVD 2014 the largest male oriented family planning event in history. Headquartered at Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, and live-streamed world wide, WVD celebrated vasectomy providers, the organizations who support family planning and the stories of men who make the choice to do right by themselves, their families and our future.
Our event was streamed to over 10,000 followers and included video shout-outs from around the world, short documentaries, Skype conversations with people in 7 time zones, and vasectomy providers doing procedures in several clinics including our Florida headquarters. There was media coverage in over 20 countries, stories in CNN and NPR, as well as thousands of other media impressions and real time accounts by multiple bloggers. Our face book page ‘likes’ and twitter followers passed 1,000 each as our presence on the Internet grew steadily.
Our inaugural event, hosted in Adelaide, Australia in 2013, had the tag line ‘lowering carbon footprint one vasectomy at a time’. For 2014, we focused on increasing men’s role in family planning and used the slogan ‘celebrating responsible men!’ Executive Director Jonathan Stack and his co founders, Doug Stein and Simon Nasht, created World Vasectomy Day to raise awareness about men’s role in family planning.
Our primary objectives are:
1: Improve awareness of vasectomy as a secure and safe family planning option for men.
2: Increase access to high quality vasectomies worldwide.
3: Support women who too often carry sole responsibility and burden for family planning.
4: Inspire men, including those for whom a vasectomy is not the right option, to participate in the most important conversation of our lives.
5: Harness the power of storytelling to build a community of engaged participants committed to making and leaving a better world.
While numbers alone don’t determine success, we are well aware that the most effective ambassadors for vasectomy are men who have already chosen to be responsible. The 3,000 men who had their vasectomies this year will become tomorrow’s leading advocates.
ACHIEVEMENTS in 2014
Close to 3000 vasectomies officially reported in 26 countries.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando, led by executive director, Jenna Tosh offers her the facility as WVD 2014 headquarters.
Chris Wren, the first man to get a vasectomy at the 2013 event in Adelaide, Australia, kicks off 2014 with a Skype call from his hometown.
Countries with participating doctors hailing from five continents include Angola, Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Ireland, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA.
Working with Dr. Ramchandra Kaza, leader of NSVSI (Non Scalpel Vasectomy Surgeons of India) India’s Ministry of Health declares World Vasectomy Day a national event and challenge doctors in each of the 32 states to participate.
Pro Familia in Colombia, hosts WVD events in many of its 28 facilities.
Major family planning organizations such as Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), and Marie Stopes International support the work and allow us to use their logo.
International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region, organize an online webinar for representatives from five countries.
Global health organizations, FHI 360 (Family Health International) and IntraHealth include our messaging in their own internal social media campaigns and offer expert insights during the actual day of event.
NSVI’s, President, Dr. Ramon Suarez, provides a nonprofit umbrella and ongoing support.
Population groups such as PMC (Population Media Center) and Center for Biological Diversity organize events, spread information on their newsletters and continue to remind us that while numbers of people on the planet are not the source of all problems, all the major problems we face are made more difficult to resolve with more people.
One of our largest donors, Population Offsets underwrites the 24 vasectomies offered free of charge at our headquarters in Florida.
AUA (American Urological Association) sends out notices to over 20,000 members.
The Male Contraceptive Initiative joined our effort through social media.
The Urological Association of France (UAF) and the Societe Internacional d’Urologie both endorsed World Vasectomy Day, as does Dr. David Serfaty’s organization, INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM FOR MALE CONTRACEPTION (ICMC).
LIST OF INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORTERS:
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando
AUA (American Urological Association)
Marie Stopes International
International Planned Parenthood Federation, Western Hemisphere Region
Pro Familia of Colombia
FHI 360
Population Media Center
Population Offsets
Center For Biological Diversity
IntraHealth
International Consortium for Male Contraception
Male Contraception Initiative
Cuban Association of Urologists
NSVI, Inc. (No Scalpel Vasectomy International)
NSVSI (No Scalpel Vasectomy Surgeons India)
STATEMENT BY CO FOUNDER JONATHAN STACK
From war and violence to poverty and pain, I’ve been making films for over twenty years about human suffering while following stories about climate change, pollution, genocide, pandemics, nuclear holocaust, child soldiers, racial injustice and more.
You’d think perhaps that witnessing so much misery would make my cynical about human kind, but the truth is the opposite; almost every encounter I have, no matter where or what the circumstance, is positive. Indeed, humanity is united by a single shared desire; that our children’s lives be better than our own.
When I started to film with Dr. Doug Stein, first as he traveled his home state providing vasectomies and then joined him and Dr. Ramon Suarez on vasectomy missions to Kenya, Haiti and the Philippines, I had the privilege to record countless stories of men who, believing their families were complete, were choosing to shoulder responsibility for family planning. I also watched women getting tubal ligations and making painful but proactive choices to limit family size. The bottom line was most men resist getting a vasectomy because they fear it will make them less of a man. It took me a long time to realize that that the opposite is true. In fact, getting a vasectomy when the time is right is about as ‘manly’ a thing as you can ever do.
Along the road I became inspired to support the bigger mission; dreaming up World Vasectomy Day as way to celebrate the men who get vasectomies, their families and partners who support them, and the vasectomy providers who offer their services around the world.
ANALYSIS OF THE STRENGTHS OF 2014
1: By shifting the language from population to family planning, we were able to broaden our base and encourage more doctors and family planning organizations to join. At the same time we continued to receive support from population organizations because regardless of how and why you chooses to get a vasectomy, the result is the same; fewer unintended pregnancies. At the end of the day, WVD doesn’t judge the reasons a man chooses to get a vasectomy as long as he does so voluntarily and that the vasectomy is done by a skilled professional.
2: Major family planning organizations, including IPPF, PPA, Marie Stopes, FHI 360 and IntraHealth, allowed us to use their logos on our literature. In addition, each organization participated in varying levels. We hope these were just the beginning steps in establishing a more robust partnership.
3: Our partners reflected a growing concern about the importance of men’s participation in family planning and all are committed to ongoing collaborations to increase awareness and support.
4: In 2013, most of our effort was spent trying to get men to sign on to be participants in the day’s activities. Reaching individual men proved unrealistic for our resources, so we shifted emphasis towards the vasectomy providers. We now have close to 400 signed on.
5: The base of active participants has expanded with more user-generated events and activities than the first year.
6: India’s decision to declare WVD an official event with the participation of providers in each of the 32 states was a phenomenal step forward.
7: Social media began growing with over 1,000 likes and 1,000 twitter followers.
8: We produced our own television show which while very ‘rough’ was also very real. The content for WVD is only limited by budget as there are endless stories to be told.
9: Building a relationship with the AUA and other global urological associations is the most efficient way to get the most number of vasectomy providers on board.
10: We were able to convince leaders from the major family planning organizations and vasectomy providers to participate during the actual WVD event with 11 more video shout-outs than 2013.
11: We drew interest from men’s groups such as Dad 2.0 who have invited us to present our project at their upcoming Dad 2.0 convention.
12: Work with women’s groups needs more effort, but indications are this support will be readily available as women gravitate to an event that promotes responsibility of men in family planning.
ANALYSIS OF THE CHALLENGES
While most indications point to our events’ success, there remain formidable challenges if we’re to become self-sustaining.
1: Raising money is the single biggest challenge we face. There are a lot of people excited and supportive but we haven’t yet figured out how to build a financial base.; be it from individuals (crowd funding), institutional allies (foundations) or corporate (sponsorships).
2: Resources for men in family planning remain scarce.
3: There are several places in the US (including NYC) that require a 30-day waiting period between a first consultation with a patient and the scheduling of the actually vasectomy procedure. The law was issued to provide a post-decision ‘cooling off’ period to ensure a fully considered decision for permanent birth control is made, but the result inhibits a sizable number of potential adapters.
In NYC, where we hoped to set up the ‘pop up clinic’, the law is active. We created all the elements needed to launch a ‘pop up’ vasectomy clinic, but in the end, the men did not have enough preparation to complete their 30 day cooling off’ period before October.
4: Doctors need more support if we hope they’ll be active participants in WVD. While we lack the resources to help each on promote their participation, it is also likely that most doctors are not comfortable using social media or even traditional media to promote their own practices.
5: We need a more consistent and sustained social media strategy.
6: There are still many people in the ‘funding community’ who are resistant to investing in male oriented family planning, including vasectomy. We see this as a challenge and an opportunity.
7: ACA or Obamacare, unlike with women’s access to birth control, considers a vasectomy a voluntary procedure and does not exempt it from one’s deductible.
8: We need to make New York a more vibrant partner in a successful WVD because it’s both the home for the cofounder and one of the true media capitals of the world.
GOING FORWARD
There is a large and growing market for male-oriented social movements. We’re inspired by the phenomenal success of MOVEMBER and feel that with sufficient resources and the right strategic approach, a similar movement could be established around the issue of family planning for men.
1: Get sponsorships from organizations to help us grow (FHI, ENGENDER, AUA, MARIE STOPES)
2: Get Urological associations (starting with AUA) to officially endorse our efforts to increase numbers of providers and participating countries.
3: Work to change policy in US, including NYC.
4: Reach 10,000 likes on Facebook and 10,000 followers on Twitter.
5: Develop online storytelling campaign.
6: Choose a new headquarters for 2015.
7: Encourage greater commitments from doctors and supporters.
8: Create an active and supportive board to help us obtain funding commitments for 2015 and beyond.
9: Create our own 501 c 3 nonprofit in order to accept foundation funding.
10: Reach out directly to foundations that support family planning
11: Get men’s groups to be advocates.
12: Sponsor educational events that are promoted through media channels.
13: Encourage year round programming through partnerships
14: Rebuild the website to provide a better experience for all, and get it maintained through a new service provider.
15: Purchase software to manage our growing database and handle funding campaigns.
TEN REASONS TO SUPPORT WVD
- I support World Vasectomy Day because for men who no longer want to have children it is the most effective option available.
- I support World Vasectomy Day because it is right that men share responsibility for family planning.
- I support World Vasectomy Day because a vasectomy is less painful than tubal ligations, the most popular form of birth control on the planet.
- I support World Vasectomy Day, not to deny the joy of parenthood, but to increase the quality of life for those who are already alive.
- I support World Vasectomy Day for the sake of our children’s future.
- I support World Vasectomy Day because eliminating the fear of unintended pregnancy can improve our sex life.
- I support World Vasectomy Day because the quality of human life depends on respect for and protection of all life.
- I support World Vasectomy Day to inspire participation in one of the most important conversations we’ll ever have.
- I support World Vasectomy Day to help train vasectomy providers worldwide.
- I support World Vasectomy Day to lower the number of unintended pregnancies on this planet.
MEDIA COVERAGE REPORT
Print and online articles
Quantity: 35
Total readership: 174 million
Total broadcast segments, TV/Radio
Quantity: 7
Audience: +5 million
Live streamed broadcast on World Vasectomy Day
Audience: 4,100
We are ecstatic that in our second year we reached audiences of over 180 million people!