ONE in the Fight to End Corruption

As an American, do you
want to make sure that our help reaches those who need it most— instead
of ending up in the hands of corrupt middlemen or officials?

So do the people who live in the world’s poorest countries. And together, we’re doing something about it. Right now, reformers in the world’s poorest nations are standing up to fight for clean government and democracy.

In Malawi, local
parents tour the country’s schools making sure textbooks paid for by
international assistance actually arrive in the hands of students. In Uganda, a group supported by Oxfam recently
named and shamed a corrupt official who pocketed funding meant to
improve their roads, sending him to jail. And today, 23 African
countries have volunteered to have outside experts come in and scrutinize their governments for corruption and poor public services.

What works is fighting corruption by giving
international assistance to honest governments, private charities and
faith-based organizations—and then holding them
accountable. It’s also essential that when we give
assistance or when American companies invest overseas, nothing we do
encourages corruption. Together with debt cancellation, trade reform
and increased aid, anti-corruption measures have the power to help Africa and the world’s poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.

Fight Famine in Niger, and Plant a Better Future

Whether
helping rebuild after the tsunami or working in our own communities,
Americans have shown again and again we are a compassionate
country. Many of us have been following the tragic events
unfolding in Niger, a West African nation now facing a famine affecting close to 4 million people.

That’s
a big number—about the same number of people as live in a state like
Kentucky, and even more people than live in Iowa or New
Hampshire. And any American farmer can tell you that when a
community is forced to eat the seed they should be saving to plant for
next year’s harvest, the situation is very serious—and maybe even hard
for us to see or really understand.

Right now, you can find out more about what’s happening in Niger and
decide how you want to get involved, by talking to your friends and
family or even choosing to do more. These ONE partners are
working to help the people of Niger, you can visit their web sites to
learn more:

Action Against Hunger

Africare

American Jewish World Service

CARE

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee

Concern Worldwide

Episcopal Relief and Development

Food for the Hungry

International Medical Corps

International Orthodox Christian Charities

Mercy Corps

NetAid

Operation Blessing

Oxfam America

PlanUSA

Save the Children

USA for UNICEF

Burundi to Receive $1.5 billion in Debt Relief

Earlier this week, Burundi qualified for interim debt relief from
the IMF and World Bank, when it reached its decision point under the
enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. The
‘decision point’ stage is the step before full debt relief by the World
Bank and IMF and means that a country has implemented some
necessary reforms to improve governance and poverty reduction. Burundi
is the 28th country to reach its decision point and 18 of those
countries have gone on to reach their completion point and qualify for
full debt relief. In order to reach the completion point,
countries such as Burundi must continue to implement agreed upon
economic and social programs as well as create and implement a
Poverty Reduction Strategy.

For more information on the HIPC initiative, please visit www.worldbank.org/hipc

Made in Africa!

I was lucky the other day to have lunch with my friend Samantha and Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou and his friend Bill near the Santa Monica pier looking out over the ocean. Besides being a great actor
(Amistad, Gladiator, In America) Djimon is a real friend to the
campaign and as nice a guy as I’ve ever met. We hung out together
in Edinburgh at the G8 summit a bit together and I learned a lot about his life in Benin
and growing up as a street kid to suddenly finding himself in Hollywood one day.
My colleague Lyndsay at OXFAM and Djimon were in Mali not too long ago
learning about trade issues together and I wanted to catch up with
Djimon and Dr. Bill Releford, President and CEO of Made in Africa, Inc. about it all.

Over a delicious lunch Bill showed me the future of fashion. Butta.

“Made
In Africa ( MIA) and Butta are Urban Apparel lines that have the unique
distinction of being made in Africa by Africans. MIA and Butta’s
primary concept is to import high-quality men and women’s undergarments
from various countries in Sub-Sahara Africa and promote them aggressively
within the U.S. and international urban clothing markets.”

ONE Answer: A classroom can stop AIDS!

As Americans, we know that education is
the key to opportunity. In many parts of the world, education can also
be the key to survival and a hopeful future. In Uganda, kids who
make it to secondary school are three times less likely to get AIDS,
and worldwide, access to a good basic education could even prevent
700,000 HIV cases every year. Can you believe that 46 million
children are out of school in Africa alone - more than all the children
in primary school in the entire United States - and that more than half
are girls?

The good news is that, working in partnership with
poor countries, we can make a difference. Debt cancellation from
the U.S. and other countries helps nations like Tanzania get rid of school fees that keep kids out of school, and as a result, primary school enrollment has doubled!

You can visit a village school in Africa and also learn more about how:
A dedicated village in Djibouti got 100% of its children into school
An AIDS orphan in Ghana got her education
One woman got a firsthand look at the need for a “HERO” in South Africa