In an opening speech at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Japan would double its foreign aid and business investments to the African continent.
“As part of Japan’s pledge to double investment in Africa, Fukuda announced a $2.5 billion scheme that will directly finance businesses in Africa and guarantee the financing provided by Japanese banks for businesses there.
Fukuda also stressed the need for a network of roads in Africa, vowing to give up to $4 billion of yen loans to the continent over the next five years to improve its infrastructure.”
Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) are the latest singers of the Lugar-Sununu letter to the Senate Majority and Minority leaders. That letter asks Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to do everything in their power to get PEPFAR, America’s primary vehicle for fighting HIV/AIDS in the developing world to the Senate floor for a vote. These two additional voices show those who blocking action on PEPFAR that there is strong bipartisan support for continuing America’s moral leadership against killers like AIDS, TB and malaria.
But there’s still more to do. If you live in Texas, Idaho, Kansas,Utah, Mississippi, Wyoming,Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Nevada or Missouri, we need you to write to your senator or senators and ask them to sign the Lugar-Sununu letter and get PEPFAR going: http://www.one.org/pepfarletter
If you’re not in one of those states, you can still ask your senators to co-sponsor PEPFAR here: http://www.one.org/pepfarsenate/
Lugar-Sununu Letter Signers:
Dick Lugar (R-IN)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)
Gordon Smith (R-OR)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Mel Martinez (R-FL)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Norm Coleman (R-MN)
John Warner (R-VA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
Arlen Specter (R-PA)
I just watched the first installment of a web show, called “The Global Wire” produced by our great colleagues at the Center for U.S. Global Engagement. The series is hosted by veteran CNN reporter Frank Sesno and the first show features Sen. Chuck Hagel.
It delves deeper into the global challenges facing the next president than your average talk show usually manages to accomplish and I found Sen. Hagel’s comments striking. In one case, he relates his view on foreign assistance programs, saying that the “mentality of [foreign assistance] has to be changed in understanding that we’re not just a nation that goes and flies over countries and sprinkles $100 bills and then just sends sacks of oats and meal and corn because we’re benevolent people. We are benevolent people. We’re the most generous country in the history of man, by any measure. But there’s something more to it than that. It is an investment in stability and security.”
The next show of “The Global Wire” features former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, which I’m told will be posted in early June. While you’re waiting, definitely check out the interview with Sen. Hagel.
J. Mark Brinkmoeller, ONE U.S. NGO Partnerships & Faith Relations
At the conclusion of our recent trip to Mozambique and Zambia, I traveled with fellow field organizer Kim Smith to northern Zambia to Meheba Refugee Camp with FORGE, an organization that works hand-in-hand with refugees.
Meheba Refugee Camp has been in existence for over 30 years. It is about 700 square kilometers and has about 14,000 refugees, mostly from Angola, Congo, and Rwanda. Sadly there is no running water, no electricity, and no doctors.
A youth orientated organization, FORGE partners with refugees on a host of projects such as micro-finance, nursery schools, a women’s center, and has helped to build the world’s largest library in a refugee camp.
We stopped in at the FORGE Health Service center that was set up to aid in basic health care. Mr. Burton, the refugee that works there, told us how he helps to facilitate health care for people that are suffering from burns, insect bites, malnutrition and dehydration, and malaria.
We also stopped in at Kunachi Nursery School for refugee children that FORGE set up and operates. All the children were very eager to try out there English with us and sang a few songs.
Sadly, I noticed that during lunch, many of the children had nothing to eat, as food security is major issue in Meheba that is now being compounded by the global food crisis.
Many of the refugees in Meheba have fled their home countries due to wars and violence, and have seen horrific tragedies in their lives. Yet through it all, they are overcoming hardships and poverty and with the help and resources from FORGE, combined with more attention and better policies from the outside world, we can help to create a better partnership between our country and some of the most neglected and marginalized people on Earth.
Tomorrow ONE Vote ’08 is having their summer kick-off event in Des Moines with Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth of the Nadas.
“One.org is about aid and funding to relieve world hunger, poverty and AIDS. If our music can help even in a small way, then any amount of effort is well worth it.” – Mike Butterworth, lead singer and guitarist
To make global poverty a central issue in this year’s presidential election, we meet the candidates everywhere on the campaign trail and ask them tough questions about battling extreme poverty and global disease. The summer kick-off event is a celebration of our successful pre-caucus efforts and a look to our future during the general election season.
The event will feature an exhibition of photos from ONE Vote ’08 all over the country, and world. Following the event there will be a free concert for ONE members by Jason Walsmith and Mike Butterworth of the band the Nadas.
If you live in the Des Moines area I hope you can join us! Wear your ONE shirt and bring your friends!
This will be my first year attending CARE’s National Conference in Washington on June 18 and 19, where CARE supporters from around the country travel each year at their own expense for an amazing and energizing few days. We’ll hear inspiring speakers like Jeffrey Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, David Gregory of NBC News, and Senator Richard Durbin. And we’ll be joined by CARE Ambassadors Christy Turlington Burns and Sheila Johnson, who are lending their famous faces to help get our message across to influential policymakers.
Participants will have a chance to hone their organizing skills, meet legislators face to face, and learn about crucial issues that CARE is working on – such as equal access to education for girls; access to small business loans that enable women to create economic opportunity in their communities; and global efforts to ensure healthy pregnancies and childbirth.
It’s been my great privilege to work for CARE for the past five years. In my job as a press officer I have traveled to almost 20 of the 70 countries where CARE works, meeting the dedicated field staff and community members who make possible daily progress toward our vision of a world without extreme poverty.
The Conference will be my first chance to meet firsthand our volunteer advocates — the activists who work tirelessly to mobilize Americans to influence U.S. policy. It’s their enthusiasm and dedication that help CARE tap into this country’s power to bring about positive change in the world.
The excitement and energy are already building, and I have no doubt this will be the most successful Conference ever. Along with ONE and our partner organizations, we are eager for a few days of big strides toward a better world. Won’t you join us? For more information go to: https://my.care.org/care/events/2008conference/
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.
Participants will have a chance to hone their organizing skills, meet legislators face to face, and learn about crucial issues that CARE is working on – such as equal access to education for girls; access to small business loans that enable women to create economic opportunity in their communities; and global efforts to ensure healthy pregnancies and childbirth.
3. Uplifting worship service, preceded by free wine at the reception! 
