Archive for June, 2007
HR 1302: The Global Poverty Act of 2007 is one of this season’s legislative priorities.
H.R. 1302 would require the President to develop and implement a comprehensive strategy to further the United States foreign policy objective of promoting the reduction of global poverty, the elimination of extreme global poverty, and the achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing by one-half the proportion of people worldwide, between 1990 and 2015, who live on less than $1 per day.
This is early in the legislative process, but the Washington Watch summary is excellent. Right now, online voting (see the left-side navigation), is running slightly against this potentially transformational legislation.
Head over to vote in their online poll and comment on why you think it’s important for America to take solid steps eradicate extreme poverty worldwide.
[Click for the complete bill text here.]
This afternoon the Iowa ONE Vote ’08 team canvassed the East Village of Des Moines talking to shop owners and hanging fliers to promote tomorrow’s big launch. We also took some time to check out our new office space which is in the heart of Iowa’s political neighborhood and in the shadow of the state capital. We introduced ourselves to everyone, and overall the feedback from shopowners in the area was very positive! Those who were unaware of the ONE Campaign were very excited to hear about our work and excited that we would be in the same neighborhood. The East Village will be a great location to set up camp with all the campaign headquarters being within a couple miles of our office.
We are really looking forward to the launch tomorrow to get Iowans as excited as we are and to kick this campaign off to a great start!
Today in the office we were lucky to have a very special guest pay us a visit. Charlie Engle was one of the three super-athletes who successfully completed the astonishing feat of running across the Sahara this past year. If you are not impressed yet, just imagine this: Running for 111 consecutive days, only one of which covered less than 25 miles and with 75 days which covered more than 50 miles; shedding 30 pounds in the first 30 days, despite the fact of eating over 10,000 calories a day, 2000 of which came from Gatorade alone. And if you wish you could have met him at the end of the journey in Egypt, consider this: out of those 111 days, only 2 days included a shower.
Charlie has been an incredible advocate for ONE, and with the coming sure-to-be-spectacular Running the Sahara documentary—which chronicles this unprecedented expedition of pure endurance and will power. We are honored to work with and support Charlie, whom ONE’s President and CEO Susan McCue called a “hero in the sports world, and also a hero in the global poverty world.”
As Charlie tells it, when he first started the expedition, he was “a runner, decent human being, fairly active in my community,” but was not yet an activist. All that changed when during his pre-run scouting he visited the Niger city of Agadez, which Charlie describes as “500,000 people living in a city meant for 50,000 people.” He realized that there was one obvious reason for the over-population: lack of water. They had no choice. “If there was water there, we wouldn’t have 500,000 people living there.”
Since then, raising awareness about the basic need for clean water in Africa has become a central theme in Charlie’s life. He tells stories from the run of saving one person’s life with the aid of nothing more than clean water and basic antibiotics. After the documentary, Charlie is not thinking of retiring. He already has plans for his next big adventure, and you can bet ONE will be right along with him.
Stay tuned for some video clips from Charlie’s visit with the office.
Tomorrow, Iowa will launch our state’s ONE Vote campaign. If you live in Iowa, I hope you’ll join us.
Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Sally Pederson and ONE volunteers will be there to kick off this unprecedented bi-partisan effort.
Doors open at 8:45 a.m. at the Historical Building Terrace at 600 East Locust Street in Des Moines. The event starts at 9.
Come and be a part of history.
Governor Thompson spoke at the US Center for Citizen Diplomacy Forum in Des Moines on the 13th. While he was the Secretary of Health and Human Services, he made many trips to very poverty stricken countries and went on trips delivering life-saving vaccines to people in African countries. He mentioned many of his achievements while he was in office and highlighted many of his presidential goals.
After his speech, I thanked the governor for everything he has done. He was happy to take a picture and display his ONE band.
Last night, Gov. Tommy Thompson came to Hanover, New Hampshire, to address a group of Republican voters and let them know why he wants to be the next president of the United States.
Many ONE members best know Gov. Tommy Thompson as President Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, and are very familiar with his work as the first head of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.
I was standing with a few members of the Dartmouth College Republicans, many wearing ONE bands themselves, when Gov. Thompson came over and saw my ONE pin. Before I could say anything, Gov. Thompson asked me if I had a ONE band for him. I laughed and gave him one that he immediately put on.
During his stump speech, Gov. Thompson talked about his work with the Bush administration and how he was the first Sec. of HHS to travel outside of the country to places in Africa and in Afghanistan. Gov. Thompson shared a story about going to an impoverished area in Afghanistan where there was a hospital with no running water or electricity. He then came home and talked with “Powell, Condi and Rumsfeld” and got money to build a hospital that was able to treat people, especially expecting mothers, in a clean, safe, and humane way. He described to the room, the first day that hospital opened and how the people of the area loved America, and loved what the American people had helped provide for them.
Gov. Thompson then spoke about how he would like to outfit two giant cruise liners with 1,000 medical beds a piece. He would help enlist the best young and idealists American doctors to travel on these boats around the globe stopping in at impoverished ports in places like Ethiopia and Somalia to help treat the sick and poor. He described the American flag waving in the wind as these boats would dock, and told the crowd how it would help those in need and show the world exactly the type of great nation that the United States is. He called his plan, “Medical Diplomacy,” and stressed the need for America to continue to take a leading role in efforts like basic education and basic survival healthcare in the developing world.
After the event I was able to talk with Gov. Thompson and thank him for his past efforts, and for remembering the world’s poorest people in his own campaign for president. He thanked me, and the ONE Campaign, and told me that he also has an entire plan to fight global malaria that he wants to talk about.
Last night was just another example of the growing movement of Americans that realize we can change the world and save lives in the developing world – you don’t have to belong to a certain political party to do so, you just have to care.
ONE was just announced as the winner of this month’s MySpace Impact
Award! The award recognizes ONE’s successful poverty relief advocacy both outside
and within the MySpace community and also comes with a $10,000 prize,
which will go toward ONE members’ continued fight against the global crisis
of extreme poverty.
Thanks to all of you who voted! Because of your support, the vote was
really never even close–out of the three finalists for the award, ONE
received about 75% of the total vote, a testament to ONE’s increasingly
broad recognition and support.
ONE’s MySpace community dwarfs that of almost all other organizations
and campaigns with over 110,000 friends. Super-volunteer Danny Castro created the
page over two years ago and still maintains it, spending about two hours
a day on the page.
Go here for more info.
