The Foreign Service Journal, April 2023

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2023 15 universities to partner with their local resettlement agencies as co-sponsors of refugees coming in through USRAP. Abdo tells the FSJ she is “excited by the possibilities, under Welcome Corps, of being able to support colleges and uni- versities to privately and directly sponsor refugee students and carry out all of the core services associated with refugee resettlement and integration.” For more information about this new program, go to www.welcomecorps.org. The Lighter Side of S on “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” O n Jan. 21, Sec- retary of State Antony Blinken joined the hosts of NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” weekly program as their featured guest on the Not My Job segment, a regular series in which hosts invite a well-known person to try to guess which current event is real and which is made up. The hosts chatted with Secretary Blinken about his children, his family— including his dad, Ambassador Donald Blinken—and his band, Ablinken, which has tracks on Spotify. Want to know how the Secretary did guessing the news? Secretary Blinken’s segment begins around the 18:15 mark. Women’s Health Working Group Progress Update I n December 2021 a group of more than 200 Foreign Service members sent a letter to then–Acting Under Secretary for Management Carol Perez, with copies to the director of the Bureau of Medical Services, the Director General’s Office, officials at USAID, and AFSA, calling for greater access to reproductive health- care overseas. The effort started with conversations online among female diplomats who had grown frustrated with the lack of con- sistency in care from the department’s Bureau of Medical Services. (For details about the group and their letter to Amb. Perez, see the May 2022 Speaking Out in The Foreign Service Journal .) Initially, the letter drew no response frommanagement. Only four months later, after the Speaking Out piece was coming out and the FSJ requested a response fromMED, did the group receive a response to the letter. Then the State Department and USAID launched a Women’s Health Working Group in October 2022 to “address the unique challenges our employees and family members serving overseas face with accessing high- quality, consistent women’s health care services.” A survey was sent to all the foreign affairs agencies at the end of 2022. More than 2,000 people responded. The Working Group sent a readout on survey results and a progress update on Jan. 17, 2023. The survey results identified top concerns as: lactation issues, includ- ing standardizing lactation spaces and improving accessibility; perimenopause and menopause information and care; reproductive health; access to mental health services, including through tele- health; improved access to post-specific women’s health information; access to a MED OB/GYN provider for complex medical issues; medical evacuations (obstetric and otherwise); and regular access to preventative care. Survey results also included personal input on a range of women’s health issues from routine health screenings to infertility, breastfeeding, menopause