Archive for September, 2006
Recently I traveled to my hometown of New Orleans for the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Every time I return I am stunned by the devastation that remains. Most of my neighbors lost their houses in the floodwaters and, for the past twelve months, have been living out of FEMA trailers. My family was lucky: nobody was hurt in the storm and our house suffered relatively little damage. Yet the memories of what happened to New Orleans – the human error and miscalculation that lead to the levee failures and, ultimately, the loss of thousands of American lives – have permanently scarred everyone.
Yet despite the seemingly hopeless situation and indescribable damage,
New Orleanians remain hopeful – or at least too stubborn to stand idly by while one of America’s most vibrant cities slowly dies from neglect. Locals and volunteers from around the country are coming together to rebuild a new, stronger New Orleans – and they are doing so with the help of many ONE partners, including Mercy Corps, Oxfam America and Habitat for Humanity.
A few days ago my parents and I went to famous Congo Square, the birthplace of jazz, for a concert organized by Mercy Corps. The event brought together the culture and people of New Orleans through music and dance. Over the past manymonths, Mercy Corps has provided direct relief, cultural enrichment programs, emotional support and services for businesses, families and children directly affected by the storm.
ONE’s partners are working every day, along the Gulf Coast and around the world, to provide humanitarian relief, fight poverty and preserve cultures. As a New Orleanian, on the one-year anniversary, I send a big thank-you to the organizations and individuals working tirelessly to restore my home and one of the nation’s most unique and treasured cities.
-Erin Allweiss, ONE Staff
(pictured above: Erin with Laura Guimond, Director of External Relations at MercyCorps)
Just in the nick of time (to beat our midnight deadline), I’m proud to present our newest song, “Might Makes Right” graciously donated by Camper Van Beethoven.
Listen, download and share ONE Music with your friends every Tuesday.
Greetings from Camper Van Beethoven. We are glad to be working with the ONE Campaign and its volunteers in the global battle against such horrors as AIDS and global poverty. Currently in the United States, such a small portion of our budget is going to programs that actually benefit people, that even one percent more would help immensely in fighting poverty and disease on a global scale.
This world can be a better place, the people of the world deserve it.
We all do what we can. Camper Van Beethoven makes music. Here’s a song.
-Jonathan Segel, Camper Van Beethoven
http://www.campervanbeethoven.com/
On Sunday, August 27, 2006,
Debra Messing became the 1,000th person interviewed by Joan and Melissa Rivers. Beside the obvious personal glory, Debra also won $10,000 for a charity of her choice – and the charity she chose was the ONE Campaign.
I’m happy for the donation and the public support – but above all – what the ONE Campaign really needs is everyone’s voices – quite regardless of whether or not Joan Rivers has ever asked you “now who are you wearing?”
Last year I
visited an orphanage in Kenya with a group from our
church. This was an orphanage for children whose
parents had died of AIDS.
Although the
children had very little, we discovered they were
among the lucky ones, who had a place to sleep, could
attend school and had at least one meal a day. These
children were beautiful, loving and full of hope, even
though some had lost their entire families.
We visited a
grandmother in the village who was trying to raise her
granddaughters after their parents had died. We gave
her a bag of maze (corn) as a gift and she cried and
kissed our hands, thanking us.
My eyes were
opened to the poverty and hunger in a real way, and it
left me knowing that I had to do something, but what?
I’m only one person. Then I heard about the ONE
Campaign and signed up immediately. I now realize that
my one voice, together with all the other voices, can
make a difference and I won’t stop trying until we
do!
-Karen
Kovach, member of the ONE Campaign, Camden,
MI
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.
I am a young wife and mother of five year old twins. Reaching out to
those who are under-resourced has always been important to me, but recently it hit close to home.
Last year my husband was diagnosed with a serious illness and without
the proper surgery, treatments and medicine, the disease would have been fatal.
I started thinking about all the people who have treatable diseases
but are dying because medicines are not available to them. I started thinking: what if that was my family, my husband, my children? What if we weren’t able
to get the treatment my husband needed to save his life?
Thankfully we live in a country where we have access to these things,
and fortunately his life was spared. Millions of people are not so fortunate, and now for me, this is personal.
Every time I see a picture of a child without a parent, I think, that
could have been my children. Every time I hear a story about a wife losing her husband and having to raise her children alone, I think, that could have been
me.
There is a much bigger disease that the world needs to address here,
it’s the disease of indifference, and to make poverty history we need to make this personal.
-Lisa Yonan, member of the ONE Campaign, Chicago IL
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.
“My name is Richard Brodsky. In 1997 I was diagnosed HIV-positive. I
was married at the time, an architect, a marathon runner and my wife, Jodi, and I had three teenage daughters. We were going to keep our story a secret
because we were living a very respectable life by society’s standard. But then Jodi and I realized that if all HIV-positive people kept their silly secret,
Americans would be dropping like flies from an undisclosed illness. This actually does happen in Kenya and much of Africa where the stigma of being
HIV-positive is far worse than it is in America. Public officials in Africa never die from AIDS; it’s always from some undisclosed
illness.
From 1998-2002, I continued running marathons and living a typical
life in the suburbs. Considering that I had been running marathons for years, and I ran my fastest marathon after being diagnosed HIV-positive, it was my
hope that other people could realize that AIDS need not be a death sentence; AIDS sufferers simply needed access to the AIDS medicine and to lead a healthy
lifestyle.
I finally came out and told my story in 2002. Reactions were mixed and
I took it in stride, well, not exactly. I caught a bad break in November, 2002 as I was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. My cancer had nothing to do
with my HIV. On November 27, 2002 my brain tumor was substantially removed and, on the second anniversary of the tumor being removed, Jodi and I were flying
to Africa to participate in the first World AIDS Marathon, an event I organized. Poverty was rampant. I then realized that all the AIDS medicine in the world
would only make a small dent in the number of deaths from AIDS. Here was a continent that lacked clean drinking water, an adequate food supply, and the
medical care we take for granted in America.
With all the AIDS Awareness out there, especially spearheaded by the
ONE Campaign, how is it that less than 1% of the people I’ve questioned are aware of the fact that there are 14,000,000 orphans living in sub-Saharan Africa
who have lost one or both parents to AIDS!?”
-Richard, member of the ONE Campaign, Atlantic Beach,
NY
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.
There was an important editorial in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
It discussed the textile provision of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows most clothing assembled in sub-Sahara countries to enter
the U.S. duty-free. The incentive this provision provides is critical to businesses who are investing in the region, but, unfortunately, it is set to expire
in 2007.
If congress doesn’t take action to renew the textile portion of AGOA
before the end of this year’s legislative session, 150,000 Africans could lose their jobs.
You need a subscription to the Journal in order to read the full editorial , but below is an excerpt.
Wall Street Journal, August 30, 2006, Page A10
The bottom line is that if the provision on using outside fabric dies, so will Africa’s assembly industry, which is a particularly important source of jobs
for women… Africa needs whatever jobs it can get while it tries to pull itself up from the bottom rung of the ladder. Apparel assembly is making that
possible. Cutting off a source of jobs in the hope that some new industry will spring up strikes us as risk Africans can ill-afford.
