Last week, the band Third Day posted ONE’s petition on the budget to their Facebook page. The post prompted more than 200 comments, but Tai Anderson, bassist for Third Day, noted that these posts “drew huge criticism, some healthy dialogue, and some flared tempers.” In a post on the Third Day blog, Tai attempted to answer some of the critique and offered his own perspective. — Mark Brinkmoeller
ONE members from across the state of North Carolina are eager for the budget to ensure that smart, cost-effective programs like GAVI are able to provide life-saving vaccines to children in developing nations.
Representing parents, educators, heath professionals, students and ONE members who have spent time in Africa, we told staff members from Senator Kay Hagan’s Raleigh office that supporting vaccines is one of the most cost-effective ways to save lives and prevent disease for a lifetime.
What if we could adapt to, even mitigate, unpredictable weather and increase food security at the same time? Wouldn’t that be a dream come true? Well, according to USAID, we can.
Harvesting natural resource management while simultaneously harvesting higher crop yields is more than just a possibility, it is happening now. I learned all about it yesterday at the first event in “A Series on Integrating Climate Change and Natural Resource Management into Feed the Future,” sponsored by USAID, CARE USA, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Africa Biodiversity Collaborative Group.
Three ONE members at Seton Hall University were lucky enough to meet Senator Bob Menendez on Monday night at the Second Annual Women of Distinction Awards Ceremony in Middlesex County College in Edison, NJ.
The senator established these awards in honor of his late mother in order to inspire other trailblazing American women of achievement in various fields.
ONE Seton Hall member Alyana Alfaro said, “We spoke to him for a couple of minutes and thanked him for his continuing championship of the international affairs budget, particularly critical life-saving and poverty-fighting programs, at a time when it is being severely challenged. He said it was important to him and he appreciated our support. We also gave him a ONE band which he wore during the entirety of the award presentation.” (more…)
Last Saturday, two ONE members joined me at a town hall meeting hosted by Congressman Ed Royce at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, CA. This was the first time I have even attended a town hall and WOW — what an impact we can make with our representatives!
Topics ranged from national security to the budget. After the town hall, we got to meet the congressman and his district director to share with them the concerns of 17,000 Californians who signed the ONE petition to “Stop the Cuts that Could Kill.”
The petition has a vital goal to to protect funding for smart US investments that address HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, child vaccines and agriculture from the recent devastating cuts in the House 2011 funding bill. Under the currents cuts to the Global Fund, more than 400,000 AIDS patients will not receive antiretroviral treatment, leaving them on the path to illness and death.
Helping the world’s poorest people is not only an important American legacy, it also strengthens our national security, as stated on several occasions by military leaders such as General Petraeus and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Congressman Royce, who has traveled widely on the African continent, was very approachable and attentive to our group. When we offered him a wristband, he immediately rolled up his sleeve and put it on. His district director kindly gave us the congressman’s card along with more information on how we could follow him online.
We will keep the conversation going with the congressman to urge his support for critical life-saving programs, which win us allies overseas and promote our national security.
-Sue Lowe, ONE Congressional District leader, California
The 2012 presidential campaign is heating up in Iowa.
Last weekend, presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich spoke to a group of more than 500 Iowa conservatives at the first-ever Conservative Principles Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. After his rousing speech, Mr. Gingrich made his way through the lobby where I had a chance to talk with him about Malawi and the Feed the Future initiative that Michael Gerson wrote about in the Washington Post.
Vincent Magombe, Lee Opiyo Oryema, William Nkata Masembe and Belinda Atim outside number 10
A group of Ugandans in the London Diaspora have delivered an open letter to Prime Minister David Cameron on behalf of over 200 civil society activists from their home country. The petition calls on the British government to force oil, gas and mining companies registered in the UK to be more transparent in their operations abroad.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
