Big news on ONE’s front: The ONE Campaign and our sister organization
DATA are merging to become a single organization simply called “ONE”.
The new organization will be led by David Lane, an executive with the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
We hope the merge will combine the best strengths of both organizations
and make us an even more efficient poverty-fighting machine.
Thursday’s first ever “ONE Student | ONE Vote” event at the University of Central Arkansas was a huge success! Politico’s executive editor and co-founder Jim VandeHei moderated the discussion. The conversation leaders included UCA President Lu Hardin, national security expert with the Century Foundation Jeffrey Laurenti, State Senator Gilbert Baker, UCA professor Dr. Elaine Fox and two UCA students – Brooks Cato, who lived in Tanzania, Thailand and Costa Rica, and Emily Daniel, who participated in relief efforts in Central America.
The conversation covered reasons why students should be involved in the upcoming 2008 presidential elections and all of the different ways that involvement could occur. The conversation then shifted to ways we can become involved in our community to help those who most need our help around the world. Both Emily and Brooks have traveled abroad, as had other members of the panel, and had seen the extremely dire circumstances that many in the world’s poorest countries live in.
The panelists took questions from the student audience of more than 150 UCA students. Among the questions was one from a UCA student from Nigeria, who asked what UCA was doing to expand its study abroad programs. UCA President Hardin responded that it has been one of his top priorities to expand the program, and in the five years he’s been
president, the program has more than doubled in size.
Students left ONE Student | ONE Vote energized and enthusiastic about all of the different ways they could be involved in their community, as students and in the upcoming 2008 election.
The Obama rally at Union Station in St. Louis, MO, went great on Saturday! 7 ONE Webster students went in ONE shirts and ONE Webster students Alex Cruz and Ellie Curran were interviewed by Fox Channel 2. I managed to work my way to the barrier by the side stage to band Representative Clay and Representative Carnahan. After the rally we caught up with Obama, but he said he already had a ONE band, so ONE Webster member Mark Albrecht gave him his T-shirt.
Two of our members, Sandra Lemenaite and her friend, arrived early and were packed into the very front of the crowd behind the barrier directly in front of the stage. I passed their T-shirts through the crowd to them. Afterwards, Sandra told me that they were packed in so tight that they had to get help from the people around them to slip the shirts over their jackets. One lady who helped them happened to be a ONE member and showed Sandra her ONE band.
The atmosphere there was charged with enthusiasm for the next election. We can’t wait for the next presidential candidate to come to town. Extreme poverty must be an issue in the 2008 election!
-Nick Stevens, OCC Regional Outreach Ambassador, co-chairman of ONE Saint Louis, and President of ONE Webster
It was a privilege to be at the ONE Campaign luncheon on Monday, October 15, at Noah’s Ark restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa. The guest speaker from Kenya, Fidelis Gathoni Wainaina, is a remarkable woman of faith, courage, and hope. Her faith has led her into direct ministry in her homeland with mothers who are living with HIV/AIDS and their children. God has also given her the oppotunity to give voice to the voiceless with dignataries such as the General Secretary of the United Nations, and the Canadian Parliament.
I can’t imagine the slightest division for Fidelis between her inward faith in Jesus Christ and her ministry among people living in extreme poverty. They are not two parts of her faith. She knows only one Lord, one faith, one God and Father of us all.
In meeting Fidelis I was reminded for Christians there are not two Churches, or at least should not be — the church of the global north and the church of the global south. There is only one Body of Christ, of which we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. Fidelis’ witness is a call from God to greater compassion, greater prayer, greater faith, and greater action together until with God’s help we make poverty history and eliminate HIV/AIDS completely.
-Gary Nims, Pastor, Immauel United Methodist Church, Des Moines, Iowa
Rudy Giuliani was at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct 17, holding a town hall meeting with more than 400 students and community members. Rudy spoke about his plans for healthcare and the economy and took questions from the crowd.
I was able to ask: “There are over 38 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS, what is your plan to fight this global epidemic?”
Giuliani expressed interest in increasing funding to foreign nations for this battle. He then proceeded to mention the ONE Campaign, put on his glasses to see all the ONE shirts in the crowd, and recognized the ONE Campaign for doing good work and for having the power to bring Democrats and Republicans together to support a great common cause.
Last Sunday, more than 1,200 people walked to end hunger at the 25th Annual Chicago CROP Hunger Walk to support the hunger-fighting efforts of ONE Partner Church World Service.
An unusually warm day for the city this time of year, walkers took their “Stop Hunger” signs on a route that included both neighborhoods and the lake front. Volunteers from the ONE Campaign also attended to collect signatures for the declaration as well as for a petition for Senator Durbin, asking him to co-sponsor the Jubilee Act.
Walkers linked their names together with signed petitions asking for Sen. Durbin to help “break the chains” of poverty. Upon returning from their meander, walkers also signed a “thank you” sign for Senator Obama for his leadership in co-sponsoring the Jubilee Act. Then, the Jesse White tumblers, all donned ONE bracelets and performed their acrobatics for the jubilant crowd.
Funds raised here in Chicago and in CROP Hunger Walks across the U.S. will make a difference in the lives of people in some 80 countries around the world – from working with AIDS orphans in Africa, to aiding farm families in Central America, and even assisting Indiana tornado survivors and Katrina hurricane survivors here in the States. CROP Walks truly are “Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.”
-Tessa Barnes, Congregational Outreach Coordinator, Church World Service, Great Rivers/Chicago Office and ONE member www.cropwalk.org
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.
