Robyn writes our “What We’re Reading” section, a medley of the day’s top poverty and development news. Her way with words and growing interest in the development field have been fueled by her previous work with the UNC-Chapel Hill Office of International Affairs and the global PR firm Burson-Marsteller in New York.
It’s been a little over a week now since ONE and Chegg dropped the big news that we’re taking a group of students with us to Africa this summer -– and well, it looks like we’ve caused quite the stir. A flurry of tweets, retweets, Facebook updates and hopefully the occasional offline interaction have set the Internet ablaze as students across the country prepare their applications in excited anticipation.
MTV featured the internship this week and we even had the pleasure of a tweet from Ashton Kutcher and none other than MC Hammer. Check out what everyone has been saying and join the conversation yourself. With applications due on February 10, you’ve got yourself a few more weeks to tell us why you’re the ONE!
Here’s what some people have been saying about the program on social media:
Africa Rising: Sub-Saharan Africa set for 2012 boom – The Christian Science Monitor forecasts that sub-Saharan Africa is set for a 2012 boom, due in large part to the rising demand for natural resources from countries such as Sierra Leone, Niger, and Angola. With a growing middle class, experts argue that boosting trade within the region is key to “making the most of that growing consumer wealth.” (Paige McClanahan, CSM)
Q&A with Youssou N’dour: Why the Musician Wants to Be President – TIME interviews “Africa’s most famous living singer,” Youssou N’Dour, who announced he would be running for the presidency of his native Senegal in elections on February 26. When asked why he is running, N’Dour said he cannot let rights and civil liberties continue to degrade and hopes that by jumping into the race, he will promote transparency in the election process, something the singer admits he has little confidence in. (Alex Perry, TIME)
China hails Africa as ‘golden ground’ – Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi hailed Africa as a “golden ground” for foreign investment, and vowed to work with Chinese firms to ensure they comply with local labor laws, including minimum wage, a problem that has been raised in Namibia. China has aggressively moved into African markets, tapping into natural resources to fuel its own economy but also taking a major role in building roads, bridges and other infrastructure across the continent. (AFP)
E. Africa ministers want to expand troops in Somalia – East African defense ministers want the UN to endorse a plan that boosts the size of an African Union force trying to stabilize Somalia by including Kenyan troops, an AU official said. The ministers met in the Ethiopian capital to try to forge a strategy to defeat the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group, which has been driven out of the capital Mogadishu and is now facing a new front after Ethiopia joined Kenya last week in unilaterally deploying troops. (Aaron Maasho, Reuters)
Search for AIDS Vaccine Advances – The quest for a vaccine against AIDS is gaining momentum, with research published Wednesday identifying promising new candidates that protected monkeys against a powerful strain of the virus and that soon could be tested in humans. The study, published in the online edition of the journal Nature, also shed light on how the first human vaccine to have conferred limited protection against the AIDS virus may have worked. (Betsy McKay, WSJ)
“Alarming malnutrition” in Sudan conflict zones: UN – The UN has received alarming reports of malnutrition in two Sudanese border states where the army is fighting insurgents, a senior UN official said. Fighting broke out in June between the Sudanese army and rebels in South Kordofan, spreading to states bordering newly independent South Sudan. The violence has already forced about 417,000 people to flee their homes, more than 80,000 of them to South Sudan, the UN estimates. (Ulf Laessing, Reuters)
Senegal Music Star Seeks Presidency – One of Africa’s most celebrated musicians, Senegalese singer, Youssou N’dour, announced he will seek his country’s presidency in next month’s elections, as the West African nation’s incumbent runs for a third term. Calling his candidacy a “supreme patriotic duty,” N’dour said he has heard those calling for his candidacy for “a very long time” and has finally decided to join the race. (Drew Hinshaw, WSJ)
Food prices may ease in 2012 but won’t drop: FAO – Prices of some foods may “ease slightly in 2012 due to a slowing global economy but are unlikely to drop drastically from the high levels reached last year,” said Jose Graziano da Silva, the new head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. According to Graziano da Silva, “Prices will not be going up as in the last two to three years but will also not drop down. There may be some reductions but not so drastic, in the short term.” (Catherine Hornby, Reuters)
For the past 12 days, we’ve been tweeting, blogging and Facebooking 12 easy ways to give back and change the world right in your own community, without writing a single check. We hope you’ve been following along with our incredible cast of mom bloggers (and one dad!) who have been helping us announce these actions and take them along with us. A huge thanks to Amy Oztan, of Selfish Mom (@SelfishMom), for helping us to coordinate this campaign -– and to all of our bloggers who participated:
Grants to fund device for remote health diagnosis – Two big spenders on global health innovation – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Canadian government – are hoping that $38.5 million will be enough money to create a new handheld device that doctors can use in remote areas to take samples from patients and provide analysis on a number of illnesses. Medical researchers already have developed some of the tests they want to include in the all-in-one device, but pulling them all together will be the biggest challenge. (AP)
Study Finds Many South African Children Going Hungry – A fifth of South Africa’s children are malnourished and many live in socially disrupted households, according to a major report published this week. State statisticians say that 17 years after the country’s first democratic elections, black children are still far more disadvantaged than white children or those from other ethnic groups as the roots of the old apartheid system run deep. (Peta Thornycroft, VOA)
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.
