SHELBURNE, Vt., March 4, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Everything may be bigger in Texas, but even the Lone Star State has to balance its large and rapidly growing population with limited natural resources – or so says the Texas state chapter of international non-profit organization, Population Media Center (PMC).
"Our Texas Chapter grassroots membership is concerned with population growth in Texas and around the world," says Bill Ryerson, founder and president of PMC. "The need for our efforts in Texas is great."
Ryerson will be giving a lecture at Southern Methodist University's Hughes Trigg Student Center in the Forum room on Thursday, March 6th at 6:30pm and will describe PMC's international work, which involves improving the health and well-being of people around the world. PMC uses entertainment-education strategies, like serialized dramas on radio and television, in which characters evolve into role models for positive behavior change. Founded in 1998, PMC has over 15 years of field experience using the Sabido methodology of behavior change communications, impacting more than 50 countries around the world.
"Texas is adding population at the fastest rate in the country – growing by about 1,000 people per day," says Keith Annis, PMC's Texas chapter executive director, "and this growth is placing stress on already limited state resources, especially water."
Additionally, Annis notes that Texas received a 'F' grade on the Washington DC based Population Institute's 50-State Report Card for the status of reproductive health and rights in the state, with particularly poor scores in the areas of unintended and teen pregnancy and access to healthcare and sex-education.
"Texas has big problems in the areas of both women's rights and unsustainable population growth," notes Annis. "We are working to reverse these situations with the PMC Texas chapter."
The emphasis of the PMC's work is to educate people about the benefits of small families, encourage the use of effective family planning methods, elevate women's status, and promote gender equity.
ABOUT POPULATION MEDIA CENTER (PMC):
Population Media Center is a nonprofit, international nongovernmental 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 over 15 years of field experience using the Sabido methodology of behavior change communications, impacting more than 50 countries around the world. www.populationmedia.org
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