Kara Arsenault is the New Media Content Manager at ONE. She grew up in a tiny town in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. She received a BA, with a focus on creative writing, from Middlebury College in Vermont. She previously worked at The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR, and numerous arts organizations. She currently lives in Washington, DC with her husband and dog.
I just finished listening to the first White House Twitter Townhall — and guess what I heard? President Obama talk about the importance of smart aid! But don’t take it from me. Read what he had to say for yourself:
UPDATE: Here are 3 questions we came up with to ask President Obama at tomorrow’s town hall. Please tweet whichever you like best, and hopefully the White House will answer! Tune in tomorrow at 2 PM ET live on Twitter:
@townhall How does economic growth in #Africa impact growth at home? #AskObama
@townhall Why does intl development matter in tough econ environment? #AskObama
@townhall How can trade, agric, health R&D for #Africa also benefit the US? #AskObama
I love to take short afternoon walks. My favorite route? A stroll down 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. There’s always lots of photo-flashing tourists, sign-waving protesters and Blackberry-carrying workers to check out in front of the White House gates.
I seriously can’t believe Thanksgiving is only one week away. I’m usually pretty bad about taking time to reflect and be thankful, but that changed just 13 minutes ago.
13 minutes ago, I hit play on a stop-you-in-your tracks kind of video. It’s longtime ONE supporter Bob Geldof talking before a crowd of folks at the end of the UN Millennium Development Goal Summit in New York City early this September.
I know that doesn’t necessarily sound that exciting, but trust me on this one. It’s a must watch. It’s funny, powerful, hit-you-in-the-gut good. I’ve never seen anyone talk so powerfully about our journey in the fight against poverty — or leave me so inspired to want to do even more.
So, take a look for yourself. It’s a little long, but it’s guaranteed to give you goosebumps. And I’d love to hear what you think after you’ve taken a look. Leave a comment right below!
ONE Campus is back and better than ever! An effort that has traditionally rallied students around the ONE Campus Challenge, this year’s ONE Campus program will focus on integrating our campus outreach into ONE’s national advocacy and campaign goals. This means more collaboration across universities and more opportunities for students to acquire the hands-on advocacy experience that they crave!
The program kicked off in September with a live video-conference and call to action with Barbara Bush, and we’ve taken off ever since. With a month under our belts, we have more than 100 student leaders across the country bringing the fight against poverty onto their campuses. This month, students are rallying around a number of advocacy actions, including ONE Vote 2010 platform drop-offs, “The Lazarus Effect” screenings and an educational flier campaign around Halloween.
Don’t worry, the contest we all know and love will be back better than ever and is scheduled to launch in early 2011. Until then, get in the game! There’s still plenty of time to host a Lazarus Effect Screening at your campus.
Are you interested in leading the fight against poverty on your campus? We want you! Go to http://www.one.org/campus/ and become a campus leader or join an existing chapter. At this very moment, there are students on your college campus hungry to make a big difference for the world’s poorest people. We need your help to channel that energy and ensure legislative and policy victories for improved government, greater economic development and smarter aid in the developing world.
Questions? Contact ONE Campus Coordinator Mike Fazzino or College and Young Adult Field Manager Erin Finucane .
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but Malaka and I just witnessed our last event on our last day in New York. And it was a great way to end.
Sitting here in the press room at CGI, we first heard (very briefly) from President Obama, who introduced the First Lady. She talked very passionately about the amazing work our veterans do.
And then to close the show, President Clinton sat down with Bill Gates. And they had a lot of interesting things to say, such as:
Over the past few days, Malaka and I have listened to world leaders, big thinkers, smart bloggers and some famous musicians talk a lot about the need to end extreme poverty. But we realized that while we’ve been here in bustling NYC, it’s sometimes been hard to visualize exactly what that means.
So when it came time to go find lunch today, we decided to hit the streets (or the few blocks near the 92Y since we were crunched for time) and see what we could buy for $1.25 – the amount that more than one billion people in extreme poverty live on for an entire day.
So I gave you something great to watch this morning while you had your breakfast. And now I’ve got something great for you to read while you have your late afternoon snack. Tony Blair and Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf co-authored a smart piece on governance, Africa and the MDGs for the Huffington Post – and it’s definitely worth a look.
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.
