Virginia Simmons is ONE's deputy director of new media and oversees ONE's U.S. website and U.S. online campaigns. Previously she served as ONE's online communications manager and online organizing coordinator. In 2005, Ginny created the first-ever blog written by a death row inmate, an online innovation that received national and international media attention. Starting in 2003, she served three years on Amnesty International's board for their Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. In 2005, she coordinated the death penalty community's online campaign around the 1,000th U.S. execution. Ginny has also worked as a fellow at the D.C. Public Defender Service, as a paralegal at the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and as an associate at M+R Strategic Services in their eCampaigns department consulting non-profits and campaigns on their email advocacy programs. She attended Georgetown University where she helped create a fictitious type of cheese (xanadu), which often still circulates as real throughout the Internet. Ginny grew up in New Hampshire.
Last weekend, I attended a conference where I had the opportunity to help bring more Hawaiians to the fight to end extreme poverty. There I also had the extra privilege to be able to meet with Senator Inouye personally and express my concern with budget committee leaders decision to cut $4 billion from the International Affairs Budget for 2011. Talking to Senator Inouye, I was humbled to realize the gravity our senator’s decision holds for our own country as well as for the developing world.
I was at the conference with fellow Hawaiian ONE members Alicia, Joe, Sue, Kekoa and Falisha and we all talked to and encouraged the attendees to join ONE and add their name to our petition to Senator Inouye. A large number of them listened to what we had to say, signed the petition and thanked us for advocating for the world’s poorest people.
Since Senator Inouye hold so much sway in the U.S. budget process, every signature on this petition from a Hawaiian resident has extra power. I am honored to be able to work with so many great ONE members and help sign up more names.
Got this post in from ONE’s Congressional District Leader for Maryland, Deidree Bennet.
Two young advocates took to the streets of Rockville and signed up over 200 new ONE members this weekend!
How did they do it? The Hometown Holidays event in Rockville, MD, is a massive festival which drew thousands of visitors, the majority of them families with children. Maya and Dalai Ward joyfully persevered through the heat and the crowds on Saturday and Sunday, spreading awareness of what ONE is all about. These brilliant volunteers took it upon themselves to make a banner with the phrase “Help ONE, Help Millions” which drew a lot of attention to the table. When we ran out of promo materials and white bands, they created their own fact sheet to hand out, which people loved!
Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio stopped by to engage in a lively conversation with the girls, and then signed up to ONE!
Addressing complete strangers with “Hi! How are you?…Fine thank you. Have you heard about ONE?” takes a brave spirit. Many new members expressed how impressed they were by the passion and hopefulness displayed by the youths. Some of the more persuasive arguments these volunteers used to connect with people were launched with the phrase:
“Did you know…”
Did you know 40 cents a day will keep a person with HIV/AIDS alive?
Some children have to walk up to five miles a day just to get a bucket of dirty water?
Deaths from Malaria have been cut in half in over 20 countries?!?
34 million more African children were able to go to school, yet 35 million more still are not. There is more work to be done.
They also signed up seven new ONE volunteers, who were inspired by the intelligence and will of these remarkable young ladies.
Tuesday morning in Ottawa, Canada, ONE launched the 2010 DATA Report, our annual report card on G8 countries’ progress towards meeting their commitments to Africa. ONE’s President and CEO, David Lane, was joined on a panel by two powerful Canadian advocates – Belinda Stronach, and Yasmin Warsame.
Tomorrow’s edition of the Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail will be guest-edited by ONE co-founder Bono and ONE activist Bob Geldof — and the paper is already hitting the ground running with this awesome behind-the-scene video.
As the video points out, tomorrow will mark the first time the Globe and Mail has ever been guest-edited, and also the first time Bono and Bob Geldof have ever guest-edited a North American newspaper. Check back soon for more great extras.
ONE is embarking on a listening and learning trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya with members of our board and other supporters. Below is a video by ONE advisory board member John Githongo.
We wanted to share this video taken in Kenya this week of anti-corruption campaign and ONE advisor John Githongo. I found his words moving, and tried my best to transcribe them below.
“Hi, I’m John Githongo. I’m Chief Executive of Inuka Kenya. Also head of
Twaweza Kenya.
When people ask me what we’re doing, at the end of day, I mean there’s lots of stuff we’re doing, but at the end of the day what we’re creating is a social movement of people, especially young people, who believe in the concept of “ni sissy.”
Ni sisi is the Swahili words for “it is us.”
It is us who owns our problems and it is us who will come up with the solutions.
There are many ways of doing that. We have culture platforms. We partner with the private sector. We use media, information technology. There are a whole range of ways this can be applied.
But at the end of the day the critical element is people. That is the most valuable asset that we have in a country like Kenya. Despite the difficulties that we had in 2007 2008 after the elections.
A network that brings people together for themselves to improve their own conditions and their own relationships with each other.
Dignity comes before development — and that’s about relationships.
Therefor you may find a situation where people seem to be poor, who are living under challenging circumstances, but they are comfortable in their own skin.
And it is in that kind of context that development, in the traditional sense, happens most easily.”
More about John Githongo, written by my colleague Morgana, below:
In 2002 the newly appointed President Kibaki appointed John Githongo as Permanent Secretary for Ethics and Governance in the Office of the President, where he was known as the “anti-corruption czar.” Eighteen months after Githongo entered office, he began to discover considerable instances of corruption. As Githongo tried to probe further, government ministers prevented his investigations. Without support from the President and his administration, Githongo resigned from his post in 2005. He then went into self-imposed exile in the UK, without any explanation for his abrupt departure. When he left, he took with him potentially explosive documents that revealed the corruption schemes in the government. Githongo compiled the documents into a dossier which was leaked to the press in early 2006. This dossier contained evidence of a series of government procurement deals with non-existent companies, which effectively robbed Kenya of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Michela Wrong, a British author and former foreign correspondent who housed Githongo during part of his exile, chronicled Githongo’s fight against corruption in her book, It’s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower. Githongo, who is on ONE’s Advisory Board, has since returned from exile, but travels extensively to continue to monitor, investigate, and spread awareness about government corruption.
Mr. Githongo’s new organization, Inuka (“get up” in Swahili) Trust, aims to recapture the powerful moment of hope felt by all Kenyans in 2003 and convert it into lasting change created by and for Kenyans. Inuka works to affirm individuals as African and global citizens and empower Kenyans to use information, express their views and – importantly – take initiative aimed at improving their lives and holding governments accountable.
On Wednesday, March 17th, Githongo took us to visit Nyawira Kazi — a self-organized local community group of 20 people who have come together to help the vulnerable in their community. Led by charismatic leadership with no external help, Nyawira Kazi finds the gaps that exist in their local community and work towards closing them. Right now this means their focus is on caring for the orphans left behind by the political violence by providing a nursery and feeding program for children who would otherwise go without meals.
Earlier today, ONE’s own Lauren Conn, ONE intern and member Emily Daher, and a group of George Mason University ONE members, talked to and gave a ONE white wristband to President Obama outside an event in Fairfax, Virginia!
Lauren is still out in the field working, but sent us back this report:
We greeted and thanked President Obama on his way into the event – and then got a chance to talk to him on his way out. We asked him to remember the world’s poorest and he said, “absolutely,” looked at all of our ONE shirts, took a ONE band and joked about his collection.
Emily Daher : “Thank you for supporting the world’s poorest!”
President Obama: “Absolutely. Thank you — I have like 15 of these!”
ONE members all across the country (we just caught up with him in Nevada last month) have thanked the president for requesting a robust international affairs budge and asked the administration to continue their efforts to fight extreme poverty and strengthen our national security.
A massive earthquake hit Chile at 3am their time this morning. The quake, measured at 8.8 magnitude, was even more powerful than the one that hit Haiti last month.
From ABC News:
“The minute-and-a-half-long quake was less than 100 miles north from the southwest coastal city of Concepcion, the second-largest city in Chile, but caused damage as far away as the capital Santiago nearly 200 miles away.
Hospitals in the area have been evacuated and the airport in Santiago has been shut down as the country braces to cope with at least 13 aftershocks measuring 5.0 magnitude or stronger. Phone lines and power also are out of service.”
Officials have warned that the earthquake could trigger a tsunami throughout the region. As US news is reporting, Hawaii is being evacuated as the first wave of a tsunami is expected arrive their at 11:19am local time.
Obviously this story is developing and we’ll be keeping an eye on it.
Right now, some of the world's biggest oil companies are fighting to keep some of their deals with foreign governments secret. Let's tell big oil we won't be bullied.
Cuts to poverty-fighting programs won't balance the budget, but they will set back progress on Canada's development priorities and risk jeopardizing existing investments.
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.
