As many of you have heard, the Ethiopian government recently asked Starbucks to sign a licensing agreement that will allow Ethiopia to control the names of its coffees. That way, Ethiopia can help determine an export price and can make sure Ethiopian farmers see a larger share of the profits, enabling them to feed their children, send them to school and get them better healthcare.
This past Saturday, Oxfam supporters gathered for the ‘Oxfam Starbucks Day of Action.’ Thousands of activists, Ethiopian-Americans, and coffee lovers
in more than a dozen countries – from New Zealand to Scotland to the US – visited Starbucks stores to ask them to keep their commitments to
Ethiopian coffee farmers. Here is a video with some of the highlights from this weekend.
For more information on Oxfam’s work to protect coffee farmers’ rights, or
to find out how you can get involved, please visit http://www.oxfamamerica.org/starbucks.
No snow but it is getting cold here in New Hampshire. But that did not stop a few high profile leaders from coming to the Granite State to test out the presidential waters.
Newt Gingrich stopped in Manchester and I was surprised to see that his number one example for what America should be doing right now is devoting more money to finding vaccines for AIDS and Malaria! That is a brave and bold idea and I was proud to give Newt the ONE band on his way out the door.
And Sen. Joe Biden made a Sunday afternoon visit to New Hampshire. I spoke with him about the ONE Campaign being our generation’s chance to fight AIDS and truly make poverty history. He proudly put on the ONE band and told me that our work was “the real thing.”
It is important for our leaders to know that if they are coming to New Hampshire, they should be talking about AIDS and poverty. It is important to us as Americans, and important even here in New Hampshire. The people of New Hampshire care about where our country is headed and how we as a people are viewed around the world.
Nevermind the partisan politics, nevermind the (R) or the (D), we are going to make sure that in the 2008 NH Primary, we are going to make our voices heard on our issues. Republicans…Democrats…we are all Americans. Look for more stories from ONE Campaign Trail as things are about to get exciting up here in the Northeast.
Over 2006 our campaign secured an additional one billion dollars in anti-poverty funding, but because Congress failed to pass funding bills for the 2007 fiscal year, all of those increases could now be lost.
However, there is additional money that Congress can still distribute into key programs for the 2007 budget.
Making strides in the war against extreme poverty requires giving programs that work the resources they need. As we enter the new political environment in Washington, it’s critical that Democrats and Republicans work together to make this happen.
A few weeks ago I blogged about my trip to Mali and how clean water projects are positively impacting the lives of people in the region. I also shared some of the beautiful music I heard while there. Mali is considered the birthplace of the blues, and this soulful West African nation has produced many artists whose enchanting music has achieved international popularity.
The fabled city of Tombouctou lies at the edge of the Sahara desert in the largest region of Mali, also called Tombouctou. Originally founded over 900 years ago around a reliable clean well, Tombouctou was historically a major center of desert trade and the peaceful meeting place of many different cultures. The Niger river winds its way north into the Sahara and passes within a few miles of the city. Straddling the Sahara desert and the Niger river, Tombouctou has long been known as where “the camel meets the canoe.”
On my last night in the mysterious city of Tombouctou I had the pleasure of listening to the music of Troupe de Khalia. These musicians were so gracious to let me record their performance to share with ONE members. For this week’s podcast, please enjoy this new song from Mali to you.
Yesterday I learned that ONE is naming Yahoo! C.E.O. Dan Rosensweig and Republican strategist Jack Oliver as our two new co-chairs. Extensive experience in management, development, innovation, and political strategy between them, we look toward 2007 with strength.
“With the election of Jack Oliver and Dan Rosensweig as co-chairs, the appointment of Susan McCue as president and CEO, and the addition of Joe Cerrell of the Gates Foundation to the Board, ONE is positioned to move to the next level. I’m excited that people of their energy and talent are ready to give their all to mobilizing the political will of Americans to end extreme poverty.”
- Peter Bell, retiring Chairman of ONE’s Board of Directors
As our movement continues the fight against the most devastating diseases the world faces, progress, toward greater understanding and attention, is being made.
But more still needs to be done.
Here’s what we learned last week:
At the White House Summit on Malaria, President Bush declared malaria a disease we can beat,and added eight countries to the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), an effort to work with the faith-based organizations and the private sector to halve the number of malaria deaths in Africa.
“Defeating malaria, President Bush said, “is not going to require a miracle. It just requires a smart, sustained, focused effort.”
-President George W. Bush, 12/14/06
In a paper published in the journal Science,researchers found that AIDS and malaria interact and exasperate the effects of each other. “One important lesson of the study is that protecting HIV-positive people from malaria would also limit the spread of AIDS.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
