While on vacation last week in my home state of Minnesota, my Mom, and Director of the International School of Minnesota, asked me to tag along with a group of high school students as they split into groups and set out across the Twin Cities to learn about various ways to give back to the community, both locally AND globally.
Knowing the kind of work I do at ONE, my Mom assigned me to the group that went to the Minnesota-based non-profit called Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), which works to distribute nutritious food to starving children throughout the world through missionary partnerships at orphanages, schools, clinics, refugee camps and malnourishment centers.
A group of about 20 students between grades 9-12, spent 3 hours packing bags of chicken, vegetables, soy and corn in feed bags that would be directly sent to countries like Haiti, Uganda, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe, to name a few.
Excited chants of “CHICKEN… VEGETABLES… SOY… CORN!” could be heard as each student carefully added their ingredient along the assembly line.
FMSC Team Leader, Cole Anderson, told our group before sealing the bags that, “the next people to touch this food will be the very kids who will benefit from it.” What a powerful thought!
At the end of our time, the students and teachers from our group packed a total of 15,984 meals, enough to feed 44 kids for an entire year!
The experience reminded me that there are countless ways to help fight global poverty. Whether by taking action locally with groups like FMSC, or by lobbying our government officials on behalf of the world’s poorest as members of ONE, there is a role for everyone in this great movement!
Atlanta ONE hosted a presentation of the Youssou N’Dour documentary “I Bring What I Love” this past Saturday night in Atlanta. “I Bring What I Love” presents a snapshot portrayal of Youssou N’Dour, an African pop musician from Senegal and his struggles surrounding the release of an album of religious music. While the album was lauded around the world, it wasn’t welcome among his own people. N’Dour stayed committed to his music though, and eventually the people came to embrace it.
Sarah Price, one of the producers of the film, stopped by the table before the screening to discuss how we could make sure everyone in the audience felt connected to ONE. After the screening, Sarah conducted a brief Q & A where she was peppered with questions from the crowd. She was eloquent, insightful, and encouraged everyone to make sure they became a part of ONE. I was happy to man the table and help people learn more about how they can play a role in ending extreme poverty. It was a convergence of the two things I feel most passionate about in life: fighting poverty and making movies that matter.
N’Dour’s religious commitment and fervor serve as a great reminder of how people of all faiths can find solidarity around the issues connected to extreme poverty. The documentary, which attracted a very diverse audience, provided the perfect opportunity to begin a dialogue with people around those issues. While many in the audience may have been divided by age, ethnicity or religious background, all could come together as ONE around the idea of ending the gross injustice of extreme poverty.
As a Hawaii ONE member, I talk a lot about the Aloha Spirit— the Hawaiian tradition of affection, love, peace, compassion and mercy. One of the interpretations of the word aloha is the recognition of the spirit of others, and the notion that we all share the responsibility to care for that spirit.
In a world where millions of people are without the basics— clean water, shelter, medicine and education, it is no wonder that hundreds of Hawaiians have called, written and visited our Senator, Daniel Inouye, asking him to leverage his power as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and exercise his aloha spirit to help fully fund US programs that help lift millions out of extreme poverty.
After multiple office visits in by fellow ONE members in Hawaii and a successful petition drive with more than 600 signatures, I decided it was time to take our message to Washington D.C.!
Yesterday afternoon, I visited Capitol Hill to meet with Sen. Inouye’s Foreign Policy aide, Mary Yoshioka. “Sen. Inouye must take the lead to make sure America keeps its promise in the spirit of Aloha to work with the world’s most vulnerable people to end extreme poverty and disease,” I appealed to Mary.
I explained why Hawaiians feel it is so crucial that Sen. Inouye uphold the President’s budget request by allocating $51.85 billion for the Foreign Operations Bill, which funds critical life-saving and development programs like PEPFAR, MCC and Child Survival.
As a Hawaii resident with family members in the Armed Services, I understand that it is not only in our country’s moral interest to help the world’s poorest people, but that it is also in our national security interest that the United States strengthen our efforts to fight global poverty, a belief publically shared by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Mary Yoshioka said the Senator is a strong supporter of ONE’s issues and will “do his best” when it comes to the allocating President Obama’s full request for the International Affairs Budget and encouraged ONE members to reach out to other Senators and bring them together to support our agenda. She also mentioned the past visits from ONE members at Sen. Inouye’s Honolulu office and that she was impressed by the number of Hawaiians who signed the ONE petition.
Let’s export the Aloha spirit by helping the world’s poorest people to lift themselves out of poverty!
Today I got the opportunity to meet with Bruce Reddon, Deputy Regional Director for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. I was joined by Haley Jo Schwab, Tammy Schwab (Haley’s mother), and Lance Price. We all arrived with one goal, to let Senator Hutchison know that there are people in Texas who want extreme poverty to end in our lifetime. We came from different walks of life but together we were ONE.
Haley Jo started off the conversation by stating what we were there for: to ask Senator Hutchison for her leadership in fighting poverty on the Appropriations Committee. Haley Jo, a graduating senior from high school, represents the youth of our nation and it was important for her to be heard. Mr. Reddon was so gracious and polite. He was very interested in what we had to say and went on to inform us that he is already a ONE member. He was wearing his ONE bracelet. I, at this time, offered him more bracelets and a T-shirt. As the meeting progressed, we were all given a chance to express our views about the world and how important it is to give aid to Africa for various reasons: stability, national security, and just because it’s the right thing to do. Mr. Reddon listened to us about the tremendous need to aid Africa and also informed us of his visits there. He went on to tell us that he spoke to Senator Hutchison the evening before about our scheduled meeting.
Mr. Reddon said that Senator Hutchison is very interested in ONE. He told us about a photo of Bono meeting Senator Hutchison that hangs in the entry to her Dallas office. He also told us of his brief meeting with Bono. This was all great news. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to be there. Everyone had something to contribute. What a rewarding experience!
Several Atlanta ONE members participated in the CARE National Conference and Celebration May 5 and 6 in Washington, DC. It was a great time for advocacy, and we met with Senators Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and Johnny Isakson (R-GA), among many Georgia Representatives from the House about three key issues: hunger and food aid, preventing child marriage worldwide, and addressing global climate change.
Solidifying the strong bond between CARE and ONE, ONE CEO David Lane kicked off our day on the Hill with a pep talk (and book review) at our breakfast plenary, leaving us with the charge that “regular people really can make things happen.”
Senator Johnny Isakson (R-GA), who’s the ranking member on the Subcommittee for African Affairs, talked about Africa’s role as the “continent of the 21st century as far as American foreign policy and intervention is concerned.”
“Africa’s resources, people, and potential are tremendous,” he said. “Its problems are many. But we as a partner with the African people are already demonstrating that you can turn the tide on AIDS, you can turn the tide on malaria, you can begin to develop the infrastructure for people to have healthy, safe water and other basic supplies of human life.”
Last week, nearly 600 Hawaii ONE members signed our petition to Senator Daniel Inouye asking him to use his power as Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee to fully fund the struggle to end global poverty.
The petition drive followed an April meeting between ONE Members Heidi Lum, Linda Birn and Kimmie Palpallatoc, and Sen. Inouye’s District Legislative Assistant, Barbara Sakamoto. At the meeting they discussed the important role that Sen. Inouye plays in appropriating the funds for all of ONE’s priorities including global health, child survival, basic education, agriculture, etc.
But they wanted to make sure that more Hawaii ONE members had a chance to weigh in on the discussion!
Last week, Heidi Lum met once again with Barbara Sakamoto at Sen. Inouye’s Honolulu office. This time she brought 600 additional voices with her in the form of signed ONE petitions.
Barbara was very impressed with the number of Hawaii ONE members that responded to the call to help the world’s poorest in such a short period of time. And once again, she confirmed how important it is for Senator Inouye to hear the voices of his constituents on these important issues.
Last Tuesday, Brock Haussamen, Cordelia Smith and I met with NJ freshman Congressman Leonard Lance and his Deputy Chief of Staff Amanda Woloshen at the Congressman’s Westfield, NJ district office. We were absolutely delighted by Congressman Lance’s congeniality, bipartisan support and goodwill towards ONE.
The Congressman was very interested in how each of us became involved with ONE. Brock Haussmann is a retired English professor who is an active crusader against poverty on both the local and regional levels. Cordelia Smith is a former NJ insurance attorney who enjoys her work with ONE because it gives her a chance to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. I became aware of ONE after I incurred a severe brain injury in 2005 and could not resume my career as a publishing executive. A family member introduced me to ONE, suggesting that I volunteer for ONE because it would be intellectually and emotionally fulfilling.
We made the following requests–or “asks”:
Congressman Lance enthusiastically agreed to cosponsor H.R. 1410, the “Newborn, Child, and Mother Survival” saying, in true bi-partisan spirit “I know and respect Rep. Reichert and I will be sure to introduce myself to Rep. McCollum.”
We discussed Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank’s efforts to add an estimated $5 billion in profits from IMF gold sales to help sustain low-income countries through the economic crisis, an initiative that Congressman Lance agreed to support.
We also requested that Rep. Lance express to Rep. Jerry Lewis, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, that he support the President’s request with a $51.8 billion allocation to the Foreign Operations bill which supports development assistance.
Rep. Lance was very impressed when we told him that there are 5,000 ONE members in his district and nearly 60,000 statewide. Clearly, the sheer size of ONE’s local membership is an asset.
So, to the 4,997 other District 7 members, we hope you will get in touch with us—as well as with Congressman Lance and our other legislators–to make our Central Jersey voices heard. Brock, Cordelia, and I would love to hear from you and meet you.
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.
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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.
FMSC Team Leader, Cole Anderson, told our group before sealing the bags that, “the next people to touch this food will be the very kids who will benefit from it.” What a powerful thought!
Atlanta ONE hosted a presentation of the Youssou N’Dour documentary “I Bring What I Love” this past Saturday night in Atlanta. “I Bring What I Love” presents a snapshot portrayal of Youssou N’Dour, an African pop musician from Senegal and his struggles surrounding the release of an album of religious music. While the album was lauded around the world, it wasn’t welcome among his own people. N’Dour stayed committed to his music though, and eventually the people came to embrace it.
Last week, nearly 600 Hawaii ONE members signed our 
