Georgia WAND’s History
Today
2023
Georgia WAND & Nuclear Watch South “Stop Vogtle Vote” Campaign
Georgia WAND & Eco-Action Environmental Justice (EJ) Workgroup Convening
Georgia WAND Panelist, Georgia Strategy Summit
WE COUNT! Merging the Precincts Community Meeting
Medicare/Medicare Townhall and Community Vendor Fair
Georgia WAND Alliance for Nuclear Accountability (ANA) DC Days
Georgia WAND US CAN (Climate Action Network) Annual Meeting
2022
Kimberly Scott, Presenter on EJ Panel for Georgia State Bar Annual Meeting
WE COUNT! GOTV US Senate Elections
Burke County Organizing Project (BCOP) 2.0, May 2022
2021
Climate change townhall, 11/9/2021
Executive Director, Kim Scott, presenting on the Peoplestown project in NPU-V at the Intrenchment Creek Stewardship Council walking tour. August 2021
Earned income tax credit press conference July 2021
Janie and her Savannah River Site (SRS) work September 2021
Burke County Build a Bear Community Day October 2021
Early 2000’s
In the early 2000’s, we began focusing our work we met Annie Laura Howard Stephens, a community leader in East Georgia who cultivated the relationship between Georgia WAND and the local community of Shell Bluff.
Georgia WAND staff and volunteers have traveled the state, educating Georgians about high levels of military spending and nuclear weapons and building a base of people to help educate the public and decision makers.
We believe that nuclear production in the U.S. is an issue of environmental racism.
We approach our work using an intersectional analysis grounded in the experience of working-class women of color working to address the toxicity of their local environment.
2006
In 2006, we established our own 501c3, Georgia WAND Education Fund (“Georgia WAND”). With the help of strong board leadership, dedicated staff, and widespread community support, Bobbie guided Georgia WAND from a volunteer-led chapter into a quarter of a million-dollar organization.
We educate the public about federal budget priorities, environmental justice, and the threat of nuclear proliferation and waste.
1984
In 1984, the only Southeast chapter of WAND was established as Atlanta WAND. With the end of the cold war, our name changed to Atlanta Women’s Action for New Directions. Many dedicated women dreamed of taking Atlanta WAND, which was all volunteer for decades, to the next level. We created a fund to hire an executive director. Our generous supporters and longtime donors rallied around this funding effort which resulted in hiring Bobbie Paul.
Former Georgia WAND Executive Director, Bobbie Paul
We went statewide and changed our name to Georgia Women’s Action for New Direction.
1982
National WAND was founded in 1982 as Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament by Helen Caldicott, a pediatrician and longtime anti-nuclear activist, who also founded Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Women launched WAND because they were outraged to learn that they were 40-60% more likely to develop cancer than adult men with the same radiation exposure levels, and that radiation can pass through the placenta, causing fetal anomalies and disrupting the natural growth of the fetus’s reproductive organs.
Radiation exposure also reduces fertility, increases birth defects, and can be devastating to developing embryos, including causing spontaneous abortion or miscarriage.
WAND Founder, Dr. Helen Caldicott
Girls in the zero to five age group are twice as likely to develop cancer from the same dose radiation exposure as boys of the same age.