Just wrapping up and putting all the final pieces in place for tomorrow.

As you can see, the seats are set and ready for San Francisco to fill ‘em up!

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I’m up in San Francisco with ONE Field Coordinator Anne Batchelder and Regional Organizer Stephanie Handler getting everything in place for tomorrow’s ONE member training.

All the sessions tomorrow are full but we have four more trainings coming up and we want to see you there!

RSVP for:

• Denver on March 10
• Houston on March 24
• Minneapolis on March 31
• New York City on April 14

And as we want as many ONE members to attend as possible, we’re offering eight people $250 travel stipends.

Take a few minutes to let us know why you are a perfect candidate for a ONE scholarship.

A few months ago, students at Wheaton College were struggling with how to mobilize our campus around the global emergecy of HIV/AIDS.

With much work, by students, alums, and with faculty and community support, we ended up putting on a formal AIDS Benefit: “An Occasion for Hope.” Over 400 people attended and many called it one of the most elaborate events on our campus in years.

Wheaton College proudly holds the title as the first “College of ONE” and long-time ONE member (she appeared in the recent “ONE Vote TV Spot”) and Wheaton alum Shayne Moore came to speak at our event. Wheaton College’s President Dr. Litfin came, as well as most of the upper level administation and the town of Wheaton’s mayor.

President Dr. Litfin emotionally thanked the student body for our initiative and compassion and is now excited to partner with us in our future projects and plans. Due to the enormous success of our event we will be able to do even more on our campus and in our community to fight HIV/AIDS around the world. We welcome the challenge.

At the upcoming ONE Citizen Advocacy trainings there will be experts on various poverty and advocacy issues, and we want to make sure that you have a chance to ask them a couple of questions.

The process for this is fairly simple, simply post your questions in the comments section of this post, or submit your question though this form.

We’ll then video tape the expert’s response and post it on the blog.

To make sure that you receive all of the answers and hear how the trainings are going, make sure to subscribe to the ONE Blog RSS feed.

I’m writing this email as I pack for our exciting trip to San Francisco. At 6am tomorrow morning, Ginny will arrive at my place and we’ll start the ONE roadtrip (by driving to the airport).

These volunteer trainings are something that I’ve been working on for a couple months and it’s built up steam in ways that I couldn’t have imagined when I started writing down ideas for these trainings. This week was filled with connecting with experts on our issues, talking to volunteer leaders in San Francisco, and checking to make sure every last detail was attended to. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out – to see the volunteer base of San Francisco come out in swarms on Saturday.

I have to get back to my packing, but I’ll see you there!

This ONE Campaign is hitting the road to meet our members and mobilize our volunteers. We’ll be in sunny San Francisco on February 24, Denver on March 10, Houston on March 24, Minneapolis on March 31 and New York City on April 14.

With hundreds of everyday people choosing to spend their Saturdays learning how best to mobilize against global poverty, we know this is a rare and important opportunity for ONE, and one for which we plan to take full advantage.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be catching a flight to San Francisco where I’ll do my best to make sure that everyone has access to these trainings, no matter where they live.

Stay tuned to the ONE Blog for messages from the members attending and live posts on Saturday with the information being presented during the training sessions.

(ONE.org members who live near San Fransisco already received invitations to attend via email and this Saturday’s training is now full. Expect emails from ONE.org on how to attend the Denver, Houston, Minneapolis and New York City trainings soon.)

I have always said that ONE volunteers are some of the busiest people in the world because, aside from working, going to school, and being involved with their communities, they are also willing to give up what remains of their time to support the Campaign. Jeremy Lane is a classic example of the numerous ONE volunteers working to fight extreme poverty around the world. Jeremy works a full-time job, attends school, is married with children and still takes time to support ONE in his community.

Jeremy Lane helps in many ways, including speaking with his friends and family about the issues of global poverty, promoting ONE at local community events and recently, by working with his mayor to proclaim his town of Granbury, TX, a “City of ONE.” The local newspaper, Hood County News, ran an article highlighting Jeremy’s volunteer work for ONE and I wanted to share it with you.

Today, around 9 AM EST, three incredible runners finished a 4,000-mile marathon across the entire length of the Sahara Desert – from St. Louis, Senegal to Cairo, Egypt – to raise awareness for clean water and poverty in Africa.

The three men, Charlie Engle (USA), Ray Zahab (Canada), and Kevin Lin (Taiwan), started the race on November 1. A documentary camera crew followed the runners for the past three and a half months and the footage and will become part of a Live Planet film release called “Running The Sahara” narrated by ONE supporter, Matt Damon! We’ll keep you posted on the film’s release.

Right after he finished the 4,000-mile run, Charlie Engle wrote this note for ONE members:

“The thing that strikes me most now that I’m finished is that it was, absolutely without a doubt, the most difficult obstacle and mental challenge that I’ve ever completed. What’s funny is I somehow didn’t think it was going to be that difficult at first. What I really thought about so much on the run was there are so many people, especially in Mali and Niger, whose lives are a thousand times more difficult than mine. My suffering was voluntary, I chose to do it—many of these people have difficult lives, they didn’t volunteer, their lives could be much better with simple access to water.

My success in completing this expedition had a huge amount to do with water—there is no replacement for it, it is life for a runner. What I’ll take away from this experience is people in Africa are, generally speaking, tremendously happy, family oriented people— I was never once disappointed and always amazed by their incredible generosity towards me.

To the ONE members, the fact is I was very lucky to see firsthand the results the ONE Campaign and what the voices of ONE members actually have helped create: wells, irrigation, water projects that truly are creating a better life for hundreds of thousands of people. Don’t feel like your funding and efforts are going for nothing. Sometimes you feel like it’s going in a big pit and can’t figure out exactly where it’s going – I can assure you it’s going to the right place and saving lives.

What I hope is the legacy of this expedition is a real campaign for clean water, one that can save potentially hundreds of thousands of lives and give people the opportunity at a better life for themselves and their families.”

Today, Jubilee USA and its partner organizations launched a call-in/write-in to Debt Advisory International (DAI), the parent company of Donegal International, urging the company’s owner, Michael Sheehan, to drop the lawsuit against Zambia.

Zambia’s crime? That’s what we’d like to know.

As activists were working to convince international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF to cancel Zambia’s unsound debt, Donegal swooped down in 1999 and nabbed a piece of Zambia’s debt for $3.3 million. Zambia later received debt cancellation in 2005.

Last week, a U.K. court ruled that while Donegal is not entitled to $55 million — the amount the company claimed it is owed in taxes and interest — it is entitled to something. Donegal could be granted at least $20 million, which is half the amount Zambia expects to save this year from debt cancellation. This means that monies earmarked for healthcare, education, and other social spending needs, will instead go to line the pockets of Donegal.

Donegal and companies like them are called “vulture funds.” These companies make a profit from purchasing debt at a bargain basement price then turning around and suing the debtor for the full amount.

So, what do you do when vultures circle?

You don’t stand and cower; you fight them off!

You have the power to help Zambia, by participating in a worldwide action supported by millions of global activists. Urge Michael Sheehan to drop the lawsuit against Zambia and tell the courts that what Donegal did is the result of corruption that had nothing to do with Zambia.

A few hours into the call-in, Debi Kar, Jubilee USA’s media and policy coordinator, told us that callers were now greeted with an automated message letting them know that they had indeed reached the offices of Donegal, but that the voice mailbox was full.

When you can’t call, write. Go to Jubilee Debt Campaign’s site to send an e-mail to Donegal and DAI letting them know that you are incensed by what they’re doing!

For more information about the movement to stop the vulture fund from plundering Zambia, please visit:

• Jubilee USA Grassroots Coordinator Kristin Sundell interviewed this morning by host Amy Goodman on Democracy Now
• E-mail Donegal International via Oxfam’s website
• BBC’s Greg Palast discusses Zambia and the vulture fund on Democracy Now
• BBC reports on the vulture fund case

The youth of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia recently held our annual Youth at Council event. Our theme for the weekend was “Jesus’ World Tour”. As we were planning we came across the ONE Campaign and decided to incorporate it into the weekend.

During the event, we were divided into small groups and each group learned how the Millennium Development Goals related to an individual developing country. We also showed various ONE Campaign clips all throughout the weekend, even during our Saturday evening Eucharist.

The ONE Campaign glued everything together for us. It reminded us of our responsibility to reach out to others – to be Christ’s hands and feet in this world. Everyone was offered an opportunity to join the Campaign and we plan to continue this theme throughout our youth ministry opportunities all year.