Last night Gov. Bill Richardson spoke at the Latino Summit Meeting at Southern New Hampshire University. I decided to go with ONE member Josh to see Gov. Richardson’s address.

We stood in the balcony as Gov. Richardson spoke about shifting US foreign policy and priority to the “poorest of the poor”, he spoke about clean water and education efforts in Latin America. He went on to talk about micro lending and the work of Muhammad Yunas and the Grameen Bank, and explained to the audience how Yunas won the Peace Prize for helping to provide small loans directly to people in the developing world.

After his speech, he took questions from the crowd and one of the first questions was from Guy, an exchange student that attends SNHU. Guy asked Gov. Richardson what type of relations the US would have with Africa if he were elected president. Gov. Richardson talked about expanding funds to fight AIDS, and would propose funds for healthcare and education to fight extreme poverty. He said that Africa would be a priority in his administration and that the US would devote ample resources.

As Gov. Richardson left the event, I was able to speak with him briefly and I gave him a custom made ONE band especially for him. Because Gov. Richardson has such large hands and wrists, he has told me in the past that the ONE bands do not fit him that well, so I cut two ONE bands in half and connected them to create a larger ONE band. He laughed and put it on immediately and told me how much he supports and believes in the ONE Campaign. I thanked him for speaking about the world’s poorest people and told him to keep it up.

Gov. Richardson has a few more campaign stops in New Hampshire, and I am quite sure he will run into more ONE members today!

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer