The House vote for PEPFAR is expected this afternoon.

PEPFAR is legislation to fund global AIDS, malaria and TB programs with $48 billion for the next five years.

I’ll keep you posted as we hear updates.

Sen. McCain held a town hall meeting in Rochester, NH, yesterday to campaign for President. And just like we did for all the candidates from both parties during the NH Primary, and just we did in Unity, NH, last month – ONE was there to help advocate for the world’s poorest people.

As you can see from earlier posts, Sen. McCain recognized ONE at the start of the town hall and even briefly mentioned how Cindy McCain was joining ONE on a bi-partisan trip to Rwanda.

Later during the town hall meeting, ONE’s Marine, Michael Castaldo raised his hand and spoke with Sen. McCain about US efforts to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa and how it relates to Def. Sec. Gates’ recent call for more funding for humanitarian aid to help win hearts and minds around the world.

Programs like PEPFAR and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, are helping to save millions of lives around the world and lift millions more out of extreme poverty. But it also helps to create a safer and more secure future for those in need, and for us at home.

-Matthew Bartlett

Senator Frist is sending in daily posts from ONE’s recent trip to Rwanda. Below is the post he wrote about Sunday.

SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST-CATHEDRAL

The drive to Saint John the Baptist-Cathedral in Ruhengeri is about two hours. It is a windy, but beautiful, road. Rwanda is known as the Land of a Thousand Hills, and this journey explains why. The hills are green, and the trees are even a darker green, separated by roughly plowed hillsides; every inch of land is used. It’s lush. The worn, dusty brown walking paths switch back like big “Z’s” painted on the sides of steep, steep hills, climbing to the sky. Every mile seems more picturesque than the previous.

Bishop John gave the service. He recognized all of the visitors and preached about self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, and service. (more…)

Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton announced an upcoming trip to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal to promote the Clinton Foundation’s new programs to fight AIDS and malaria. Earlier this month, the Clinton Foundation “reached an agreement with several pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of the top anti-malaria treatment by 30 percent.”(AFP)

President Clinton travels to Africa once a year and his first trip was while he was president in 1998. Due to ONE members’ “Visit Africa” campaign in February, both Senators McCain and Obama have pledged, that if they’re elected, they’ll visit the continent during their presidency. Check out their pledges here.

Michael Gerson talks of ONE’s Rwanda trip in an Op-Ed in today’s Post. In the piece, he repeats a truth that we as ONE members have been trying to get out about the immense progress in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide – saying that the country is making some of the most rapid progress in the history of public health.

Cindy McCain’s first visit to this country, in 1994, was during the high season of roadblocks and machetes and shallow graves.

…[Last week, Cindy] McCain joined a bipartisan delegation — including former Senate majority leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle — organized by the ONE Campaign, a group that advocates for the fight against global poverty and disease. (I am also involved in the efforts of ONE.)

McCain came back to a very different Rwanda — peaceful, well governed, and making, with American help, some of the most rapid progress in the history of public health. What has struck me, says McCain, is that most people are reconciling. A woman I met was gang-raped [during the genocide], her throat was slit, she lost her whole family, but was willing to forgive. The reason this will be a successful country is the women — some of the strongest, most inspiring women I have ever met.

Last last week, PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for PEPFAR Relief) passed the Senate 80-16. Now we need the new version of the legislation to pass the House. If passed, $48 billion dollars will go toward the fight against global AIDS, malaria and TB over the next 5 years.

We expect the House vote today – and we’ll keep you posted here with updates as they roll in.

………………..

12:10 p.m. UPDATE: The PEPFAR House vote is now more likely for tomorrow.

Just a couple hours ago on MSNBC:

A quick transcription:

“And could I also recognize another organization that is very, very popular and a very important one, not only here in New Hampshire but across the country, and that’s an organization called ONE.

This is an organization inspired by a lot of people including Bono and they have over 2 million volunteers in this nation, and they go all over the world, especially Africa, to help cure malaria, AIDS, cholera, and help people. This is one the great examples of what America is all about.

I’m proud that Cindy, and a group, a number of other people, are in Africa as we speak, with the organization called ONE trying to do what we can to help those people and that organization and publicize their great work.

Thank you to the group from ONE, will you guys stand? Thank you very much. Thank you.”

-Virginia Simmons

The front page of Sunday’s Washington Post featured story of women being disproportionately affected by the food crisis. Women grow, buy, and cook food but eat last and least. The following is an excerpt from WP’s story.

After she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family’s only meal of the day. First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands. Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else had finished, a bowl for herself. She always eats last.

Read the rest of Fanta’s story or watch the video to follow a day in her life.