ONE Blog
Essay: My life as a spiritual director in Niger
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Joshua Korn is the spiritual director and community liaison for the CURE International hospital in Niamey, Niger. In this personal essay, he describes his work with CURE and explains how he is contributing to the fight against global poverty. Stay in touch with Joshua on his blog, Josh and Julie. I grew up in West Africa. I lived in Togo and la Côte D’Ivoire until I was 14 years old. Ever since then, I always wanted to come back. Africa gets in your blood, and stays forever like malaria. That is cliché, but true. I heard about CURE and the great work they do through a friend, so when the opportunity to come to Niger came up, I jumped at it. We jumped at it, I should say. My wife, who works here with me, is actually much more jumpy than I am.  The CURE hospital is primarily a children’s hospital, and we specialize in treating burn victims and children with cleft lip or cleft palate and clubfoot. As spiritual director, I provide spiritual and emotional support to the patients and staff at the hospital. In practice, this can mean many different things. My job description is pretty vague, and purposely so, I think, because it is hard to define what I do. I work very closely with the hospital’s social worker in trying to determine what the needs of our patients are and what we can do to help. Giving a child a life-changing, life-saving surgery is a big deal, but I am realizing more and more that often, it is just scratching the surface. |
Football and secret oil deals
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This article is republished from the Mail & Guardian with permission from the author. This is part of a larger blog series on transparency in the extractives industry. Stay tuned for more updates on this topic.
Twelve years ago, Equatorial Guinea made world sports headlines in the Sydney Olympics when Eric Moussambani posted the slowest record for swimming the 100m freestyle at an Olympic competition. |
What We’re Reading: Horn of Africa six months later
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Horn of Africa Famine Six Months Later – In a recent briefing about the famine in the Horn of Africa, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy for the Bureau of African Affairs, Bruce Wharton, explained that we need to “work with regional governments and others to establish longer-term food security assurance,” and fill the “fundamental need for stable, secure, and citizen-focused governance in Somalia.” The U.S. has been the largest humanitarian donor to the region. (VOA) Malaria death toll falling – A recent study by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) indicates that despite the fact that malaria kills about 50% more people than previously realized, “efforts to combat the disease have however evened out reducing the totally number of global deaths.” The report also shows that malaria deaths peaked in 2004, at 1.8 million people, and have since been declining. (Digital Journal, Robin Okuthe) |
Caring about the ‘very poor’
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There was a bit of a media firestorm around comments Governor Mitt Romney made during a CNN interview last week, in which he claimed “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” Regardless of your political affiliation or opinions about Governor Romney’s comments, Mark Moore, founder and CEO of MANA Nutrition, an organization that helps provide solutions for global malnutrition, has a unique take I wanted to share with you….
He also explains why it’s important to pay attention to the world’s poor, because they hurt the overall growth of their countries’ economies, including our own:
Read Mark’s full article here, and let us know what you think in the comments below. |
Support maternal and child health — donate your old cell phone!
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Christy Turlington Burns, ONE member and founder of Every Mother Counts, shares a resourceful way you can help the world’s poorest today.  When was the last time your cell phone saved your life? In the world’s poorest countries, this happens every day. Cell phones help mothers get the medicine they need, babies receive life-saving vaccines and families stay healthy and strong. As a ONE member and founder of Every Mother Counts, the advocacy and mobilization campaign I started to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction globally, I’ve seen these programs in action and they work. |
FAQ: The World Bank’s proposed Global Partnership for Enhanced Social Accountability
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An introductory look at the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Enhanced Social Accountability, currently under construction and inviting comments on how it can help civil society organizations hold their governments to account for more effective development.  What is the Global Partnership for Enhanced Social Accountability? |
Use your trivia knowledge to curb world hunger
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aid means: a) robber, b) couch, c) help, d) ship 2 x 2 equals: a) 3, b) 0, c) 4, d) 2 If you can answer these questions, you can help feed the world’s poorest right now. No, really. Today marks the start of the first-ever World Freerice Week, a campaign to help end global hunger through Freerice, an online game managed by the World Food Programme. For each correct answer on trivia questions like the ones above, you get 10 grains of real-life rice that end up on the plates of hungry people.  This year’s theme, “6 Degrees of Separation,” aims to exponentially increase the amount of donated rice. Play the game in teams of six and compete against Freerice players all across the world. Players have already helped donate 94 million grains of rice since the game first started — so just imagine how much more we could help give if we got more people to play? Register or join a group now, and play Freerice like a madman until Friday, February 11. Let us know how you do, and good luck! |
Blog Contributors
Hot Topics
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Fight the Famine, Feed the Future
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. -
Crisis in the Horn of Africa
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. -
The Beginning of the End of AIDS
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. -
Agriculture Accountability
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.
From Our Members
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Rep. Dicks is not the Norm… he’s a champion
Feb 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Field -
Moved by the war in Sierra Leone, an Ohio teenager finds a way to give back
Jan 26th, 2012 | Posted by Guest Blogger -
ONE Peoria links up with local Rotary group
Jan 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Field
From Our Partners
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Essay: My life as a spiritual director in Niger
Feb 8th, 2012 | Posted by Guest Blogger -
Football and secret oil deals
Feb 7th, 2012 | Posted by Guest Blogger -
Caring about the ‘very poor’
Feb 7th, 2012 | Posted by Malaka Gharib
