On Monday morning, I composed a post about the documentary film A Closer Walk, which makes its American television debut tonight on PBS (check your local listing for times.)

That first draft didn’t feel quite right, but it took me a little while to figure out why. I showed to it our Internet Director, Josh, and he spotted it right away: my post read like a press release.

He was right – that was exactly the problem. Press releases are useful tools for the media, but posting them here is most certainly not the best use of this forum. This blog is a way for us to have a direct conversation with our members: an ongoing dialogue that will help all of us stay up to date on – and make sense of – the fight to end extreme poverty and global AIDS. I hope that with some time we can realize this blog’s potential.

While I have followed international poverty issues, I am in no way an expert. I have a lot to learn from all of you and with all of you.

A Closer Walk is the first film to address AIDS on a global scale. I want to watch it tonight, but it’s not playing in my area. (See your local PBS schedule here.) I’m counting on you to watch it and let me know what I’m missing.

Ps- If you want to read a press release about A Closer Walk, this is a link to an excellent one.

We’ve received thousands of stories like Laura’s. Read more members’ stories on the main blog page. If you want to leave Laura a message, please post it in the comments section.

And if this is your first time here, be sure to sign the ONE Declaration.

ONE Members’ Stories: Laura from Texas

“I believe the fight against AIDS and global poverty is the fight of our generation. I recently asked my father where he was during the American Civil Rights movement, and if he felt a pull to be involved. As I listened to his answer, I thought, “What will my children hold me accountable for?” In the years to come, when my children ask me what I did to fight AIDS in Africa and how I tried to keep millions from needlessly dying of poverty, I want to have an answer. A real answer. This is the fight of my generation, and I will not pretend I don’t understand what devastation will occur if I do not act. The ONE Campaign gives me a voice in this most important battle, and I intend to use it.”

-Laura, member of the ONE Campaign, Texas

Check back over the next couple of weeks for more ONE members’ stories. And if you haven’t already told us how you first found your commitment to eliminate global AIDS and extreme poverty, send us your story.

This was an exciting time to join the ONE campaign as the new field director. I joined the team in June. With many of our partner organizations, we are aiming to support your efforts to discuss issues we care about with your Members of Congress. Throughout the summer, I got to hear and see ONE campaign members educating and advocating their U.S. Senators and Representatives for more funding for poverty-focused development assistance. Grandparents, high school and college students, rural and urban residents, receptionists, doctors, stay-at-home parents, pastors, and teachers all made their voices heard and took their interest in the ONE campaign to a higher level.

Their message to increase funding for programs that have an impact on poor peoples’ lives – like global AIDS and HIV prevention and treatment, TB and malaria prevention, roads, and bridges – was heard in offices on Capitol Hill and when members of Congress were home for the August recess. Many of the aid organizations who founded the ONE campaign organized lobby days in Washington, DC, and over a thousand people got involved here and at home.

The work for sitting Members of Congress isn’t done yet for the year so let your members of Congress know how you stand on the issue.

Next week, members of Congress come back to Washington, but they’ll be home again and often this fall as all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representative and one-third of the Senate are up for re-election this year. One effective way to advocate for poverty-focused development assistance is to ask them about global poverty issues at local town hall meetings this fall.

You can find information about your members Congress’ town hall meetings by visiting their official websites or by calling their offices.

I hope you’ll continue to make your voice heard. Let’s make sure that global poverty registers as an issue that we care about.

Vicky Rateau
ONE Campaign Field Director

“I moved here from South Africa in 1995, a few months after Nelson Mandela won the presidency in South Africa and the transformation into the New South Africa began. In April, 2006, I became a U.S. citizen.

I have returned fairly often to South Africa. On my last trip, my brother took me and my husband go-carting. While we were there, a double-decker school bus full of children, ranging in ages from toddlers to teenagers, arrived for a fun outing.

I was easily charmed by the children’s friendly smiles and was soon caught up in their laughter and excitement. At one point, a little boy, no more than two years old, boldly walked up to me with big beautiful trusting eyes and held my thumb in his little hand. I realized that he was quietly asking me to help him down a flight of stairs near where I was standing, so that he could go enjoy the fun below.

I marveled that this little boy had not yet learned to fear strangers, that his trust and innocence was still in tact in a country where this is lost all too soon. And I felt honored that he had chosen me to help him.

It was only when I was leaving that I noticed that the bus had the symbol of a red ribbon drawn on its side. When I questioned my brother about it, he explained that all the children who had arrived on the bus were orphans of AIDS victim, that each was themselves infected with HIV (their own deadly birthright), that the problem of AIDS in South Africa is so bad that entire orphanages are dedicated to AIDS victims and that, indeed, there aren’t enough orphanages to go around.

The most terrible thing my brother told me was that each of those children, including the little boy with the big eyes, would soon be dead from AIDS, because there was not enough medicine to go around.

I returned to the U.S.A. determined that somehow, in as many small and big ways that I can, I am going to help make a difference. That is why I joined the ONE Campaign.”

-Nicole Fouche, member of The ONE Campaign, Durham, NC

Check back to the ONE blog for more ONE members’ stories. And if you haven’t already, send in your story.

In continuation of the ONE Music series, singer Lauren Hoffman is donating her song broken to ONE Campaign members today.

I am extremely excited to announce, that with the support of generous artists who are committed to our campaign to end extreme poverty, we will now be releasing ONE Music here at www.theONEblog.org every Tuesday.

Listen, download and share ONE Music with your friends every Tuesday.

“Last night I played a short impromptu set at a party and the love in this room overwhelmed me. It was so much bigger than me and my songs, but in that moment, I was the lightning rod, I was the conduit, and it was both humbling and empowering.

I feel so blessed to have music in my life, it has brought me so many gifts… music can reach beyond borders, beyond cultures and religions, into the heart of each ONE of us, where we are just beings, made of vibration and light. Music is a blessed gift because we can share it.

I am lending my song broken to the ONE campaign today, and it is an honor to have the opportunity to contribute in the most honest way I know how – from the quiet unnamed place inside of me to any open heart that should receive it.

Something I very much admire about the ONE campaign is that they do not ask for money, they ask for our voices, our action, and our recognition that this world is ONE. For me this song, broken, is about empathy, and about love in the face of imperfection. It is a personal song, inspired by one particular individual, but that is where the world changes, one individual at a time.”

~ Lauren Hoffman
www.forlauren.com
www.myspace.com/laurenhoffman

While I know you may be inundated with news about the one-year anniversary of Katrina, it’s hard to ignore an event in which hundreds died and hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed and people displaced.

Over the past year, many of ONE’s anti-poverty coalition partners have used their resources and manpower to aid the victims of these storms. We’re proud to have them on our team. Below are some highlights:

“Habitat for Humanity is now working in 20 communities in the four states most devastated by the hurricanes. Habitat is not only involved in building new homes but in renovating homes damaged by the storms. Operation Home Delivery is also working in partnership with other organizations to acquire land, to put volunteers on the ground and to provide family services.”

“Since beginning relief operations just days after the hurricane, Mercy Corps has helped nearly 250,000 survivors – including more than 100,000 children – begin their recovery, return and rebuilding. We will remain committed to them in the critical months ahead.

Our Gulf Coast programs are powered by the survivors themselves. Their energy, will and spirit have driven a comprehensive, caring effort that stretches across the region. Today, they are reshaping the Gulf Coast and building back better.”

“In the absence of a vigorous official response to the disasters, particularly in the poorest communities, Oxfam America launched its first relief effort in the United States several days after Katrina struck. Working through local partner organizations, we focused our efforts on Mississippi and Louisiana.

In the early weeks following the disasters, we provided emergency grants that helped our partners distribute an array of relief goods, including food and medicine…Our program has now evolved into a long-term commitment to help the region rebuild—not just to its previous condition, but with the goal of providing a more promising future for the Gulf Coast’s poorest residents.”

“In 1986 a dear friend living in Los Angeles was diagnosed with HIV.

…As Los Angeles had a superior infrastructure to deal with HIV/AIDS, and as my friend was by then, a committed member of several AIDS organizations, she did not want to return to her home and native Montreal, nor did her family want to move to Los Angeles – so I did. I packed up my home in 1993 and moved to Los Angeles to take care of her.

I administered IV infusions of nuclear medicine three to four times a day. I sorted her myriad pills, read up on all the alternative medicines, volunteered at ‘Women’s Being Alive’ became good friends with her friends, most of whom were in the AIDS community.

When the time came for me to give the directive to pull life support, it had been 14 months, the most difficult months of my life. It took me a good long while to get back into life.

…It’s now been over a decade. I saw firsthand what happens to people, good people, who are stricken with AIDS and I see how hard people are working on their behalf. I have experience, knowledge and a personal interest in doing what I can to help make sure people don’t have to suffer like my friend did, or go through what I did in taking care of her.”

-Susan Daley, member of The ONE Campaign, Burlington, Ontario

Check back to the ONE blog for more ONE members’ stories. And if you haven’t already, send in your story

…an update from the ONE concert outreach team.

We just wrapped up yet another hot, tiring and fun summer on the VANs Warped Tour. This is the third year that ONE has been on the tour, and like always we found Warped fans to be incredibly supportive – nearly 40,000 of them signed up, pledging to make poverty history, during our two months on the road!

While on tour, we also got to be friends with some very cool bands, among them Rise Against. One of the headliners of this summer’s tour, Rise Against started in 1999 in Chicago. In 2004 they made their major label debut on Geffen with Siren Songs of the Counter Culture. Rise Against have been known over the years to be uncompromising in their commentary and involvement with a number of causes. We were very excited to have front man Tim McIlrath sign the declaration early on in the summer with us. The band also went on to host signings (fans would come to our booth to get an autograph from the band and more info on ONE) in our booth and wore ONE hats and the white bands all summer. Throughout the tour we were treated to regular shout-outs from the stage urging fans to check out what we were doing and join.

You can get more info on Rise Against (and thank them for their support!) on their Myspace page, and watch for them when they’ll be on tour later this fall.

Thanks to Rise Against, the Warped production team, and most importantly to all of our amazing volunteers who helped us have a such a great summer on Warped!

PS: Check out our tour photos to see us in action!

This Saturday, Senator Barack Obama is scheduled to take a public AIDS test in Kenya at a clinic in the village of Nyangoma-Kogelo. This is this village where his father was raised and his grandmother still lives. It is also a country where 2 million of its 33 million people are infected with HIV

The AP reports that the men and women in Nyangoma-Kogelo have been preparing for weeks for Senator Obama’s visit by cutting the grass and leveling out the dirt road that leads to his grandmother’s home. But Senator Obama’s visit will be much more than just a homecoming. With the fanfare – and the AIDS test – I hope more awareness and understanding of an epidemic will come.

After two decades, HIV it is still stigmatized in many Africa countries. This deters people from even getting tested, which is one of the surefire ways to get the epidemic under control. Successes in a handful of countries, such as Uganda and Senegal, have shown that HIV rates can be brought down through effective AIDS prevention campaigns.

Meeting with our representatives in Congress is an important part of democracy. It is essential to making sure our voices are heard and the goals of the ONE Campaign are achieved.

In that spirit, ONE volunteers Eric Myser, Cheryl Johncox, ONE Field Organizer Katie Andrews, and myself met with Rep. Deborah Pryce of Ohio’s 15th district last week to talk to her about HIV/AIDS funding, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Focus on Family Health Worldwide Act, and the Foreign Operations budget for fiscal year ‘07.

Rep. Pryce was very engaged and knowledgeable on the issues and asked a lot of great questions that we were able to answer for her. At the end of the meeting, she even donned a ONE wristband! Although the ONE Campaign has some big goals, it is often the smallest details that so often make a big difference in peoples’ lives all over the world. So when we meet with members of Congress we always stress that the funding America provides can mean the difference between a child going to school, or not. Or anti-malarial bed nets for a few more children, or a well that gets dug to provide clean drinking water for an entire village. Or not.

As American citizens we have so much power to affect change around the world. But we have to use that power. We have to let the politicians in Washington know that we’re all ready to stand as ONE. To make sure people aren’t starving, to make sure others don’t suffer needlessly, to make sure trade rules are fair for everyone, and most of all, to make poverty history.