We Did It!

The first 2007 ONE member training is complete. Can’t wait to see the next crew in Denver on March 10.

Wrapped Up!

Stephanie briefly went over all the sessions from the day, talked about the San Francisco groups that already exist, all the opportunities we have to make an impact and thanked everyone for coming.

Anne wrapped it all up saying: “So you all made it. Six hours. Tons of information…Hopefully you’ll go home tonight and think about what you want you want to do next.”

Now everyone is mingling, meeting each other and asking questions.

There’s a lot of energy, a lot of hope and a lot of San Franciscans armed with the knowledge and tools they need to make a difference.

Check back for posts from the ONE members who attended today.

Advocacy Break Out Sessions

I jumped from room to room for the last break out session. At my first stop, Stephanie was leading her group through the ONE volunteer guidelines and the process for lobbying.

In Anne’s group they were in the middle of an advocacy brainstorm. On the board there were ideas like hosting events with ONE themes, having ONE tables at major events and community functions, creating ONE school groups, and, my favorite, running for office.

In Andy’s group, 11-year-old Danny was talking about how he wanted to create ONE for kids. We talked about how today’s kids will be the next generation of activists and how you can get parents’ attention about extreme poverty through their children. Another woman talked about reaching out to girl scouts because she watches the girl scouts in her community grow up to be the leaders in their high schools. Andy brought the discussion back to adults, telling the group we have to figure out how to tap into everyone’s “inner girl scout.”

Finally, I joined Lori’s group. Lori is a long-time San Francisco ONE volunteer. The group had already outlined a whole list of items including a once a month meeting for everyone in their area. The group also talked about the potential to tap into church groups and schools. Finally we talked about outreach in general. How sometimes you have to just try stuff out, see what works and keep trying. We have to work with each other and have faith that all of our individual work will add up to a movement.

I made sure to tell them that I wanted to hear updates about how their plans are going – and that I want to post those updates right here on the ONE Blog.

Legislative Priorities

Anne came up to talk about ONE’s legislative priorities.

Overall, ONE advocates for more and better aid, debt cancellation and fairer trade practices.

Anne walked through the budget and appropriations process and the very real impact this legislation can make in the world’s poorest countries.

Throughout the process, YOU can weigh in with legislators. As a ONE member you are helping to build the political will so that the U.S. will commit additional funds to development assistance.

Anne then highlighted a few key pieces of legislations that ONE will focus on this year:

• The Education For All Act
• The Child Act
• The Jubilee Act
• The Growth Act
• The Farm Bill

See the full legislation priority presentation here.

Outreach

Andy Rigsby from CARE is talking to us about how to build a movement. Here are some highlights:

Movements grow out of recognition of an injustice he says. We know that over 3 billion people live on less than $2 a day. We know that over 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. If all you ever do is raise awareness about these two facts you’ll be incredibly successful.

But we can do more. We can build a movement.

Our job is to make the unseen seen. Most Americans have the luxury to never see extreme poverty. We need to talk to enough people to reach the tipping point. We want to reach a critical mass of awareness about extreme poverty.

We are all a part of a network. If you have one conversation about this issue, and everyone else in this room has a conversation, and a staff person at CARE and at ONE and at Jubilee has a conversation, then we will make an impact.

Advocacy can be both conventional and nonconventional. Take opportunities to put issues in front of a community.

There is a lot of power in tabling. You can educate a lot of people just offering the same information that you’ve been offered today.

Talk to existing communities like church groups, other issue organizations, neighborhood associations and even at your dinner table.

Billions of people around the world are impacted by U.S. Global policy, but they don’t have a voice in our policy process.

And the sad and lonely truth is that very, very few citizen go to their representatives to tell them about the issues that they care about.

Don’t feel the need to be an expert. We need to be passionate voters and constituents. When we lobby a member of Congress, we have a real opportunity to make change.

Small Group Discussion

I just finished leading one of our small group breakout sessions.

In the group, each person chose a fact sheet about one of the following:

• The Millennium Development Goals
• More and Better Aid
• Debt Cancelation
• Trade Justice
• Clean Water & Sanitation
• Education
• Child and Maternal Health
• HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria

They read through the fact sheet for their issue and then shared with the group a fact or statistic or idea that they found especially surprising or interesting. Conversation began to flow quickly, as the many issues all relate to one another.

Some of the things we discussed were the stigma of AIDS, the link between education and health, the impact of debt on all the extreme poverty issues, the important role women play in ending poverty, the importance of trade in creating a sustainable economy and even what to say to someone who asks you what ONE is.

All the issues’ fact sheets are included in everyone’s training packets, and I’ll post all ONE training packet materials on the blog soon.

Trade

Anne Batchelder is now leading the group through the basics of trade.

She told us that international trade has the potential to reduce poverty, but the rules that are currently in place are preventing poor people from benefiting from trade.

Most people living in extreme poverty live in rural areas and rely on agriculture.

If Africa were to increase its share of world exports by 1%, the resulting $90 Billion generated would be three times what the continent receives in aid and debt relief.

ONE supports trade policy that will deliver real benefits.

Raising incomes in poor countries means:

• improving access to markets
• reduction or elimination of rich country subsidies
• right to direct trade and development strategies

You can read through Anne’s full slide show here.