Last week I was honored to have the opportunity to meet with Congressman Dave Loebsack (Iowa-5th) and his district manager, Rob Sueppel in Cedar Rapids to discuss ONE and some current legislative priorities. The congressman was very supportive of ONE and listened with great interest as we walked through material on the campaign I provided for them.

I asked the congressman to please support the President’s full requested amount of nearly $52 billion for the foreign operations bill which will continue international life saving programs and development assistance. He said he would be willing to support the president’s full request.

I also asked the congressman to support H.R. 2139, the ‘Initiating Foreign Aid Reform’ Act, which directs the president to develop a comprehensive national development strategy to modernize and improve US aid effectiveness. He said will take a look into it and hopefully co-sponsor the bill as well.

In further conversation, I told congressman Loebsack about the Big Read project and my story which appeared on the ONE Blog. The congressman is on the Education and Labor Committee, as well as the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education. He is a former college professor and has even taken students on trips to areas of extreme poverty. He seemed very receptive to being a primary supporter of the Big Read objective — $2 billion in education funding — if and when that comes before the Congress.

Finally, I told them about some of the campaign activity locally and plans I have for outreach within the faith community as well as local colleges in the fall.

Before he left I gave a white ONE band to both Congressman Loebsack and Mr. Suppel, which they both enthusiastically took and wore.

It was a great meeting and I sincerely thank the congressman and his staff for taking the time to talk to me about these important life saving pieces of legislation.

-Thad Collins, Iowa ONE Member

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Angela Benedetto of Round Lake, New York, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

Literacy of the Heart: a Global Concern

By Angela Benedetto
Round Lake, NY

How can we have a positive, sustaining influence on our children individually and collectively? Recently I have been significantly impacted by two events related to this question. These events have taken an enormous toll on me, my students and the larger community in which they live, work, play and learn.

On April 2, 2009, students and staff at Schenectady High School were informed that our fourth African American female student committed suicide this year, totaling eight suicides in less than four years. As difficult as the first three losses this year were to bear, somehow it was the fourth suicide that put our school community into a complete state of crisis and despair. Number four this year meant that we could no longer trudge along carrying the heavy weight of loss, frustration and disparity on our shoulders, denying its hidden anguish.

I take this time to honor each individual in our community, and extend warm thoughts of hope and healing. When a child feels devalued, unseen, unheard and powerless, she is at risk. I have great concern for the stories our children are learning through our actions and words, especially pertaining to girls concerning self-empowerment, self-worth and healthy wholesome opportunities for growth. We teach this by modeling behavior that supports growth intellectually, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I speak as a “teacher leader” who understands the value of teaching as a relational experience, and the freedom relationships bring to learning.

Even as I share our story, I am aware that I am just one teacher working in one small community of learners vitally connected to the larger global learning community in which we live. And our story, as painful as it may still seem to our community, is just a small part of the greater whole. We all share the human story of justice and injustice, freedom and enslavement, hope and disparity. What are the stories that our children are learning about themselves and the communities where they live?

Literacy is the tool we use to share our values, hopes, and dreams. (more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from 15-year-old Natasha Warikoo of Sycamore High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

Imagine

By Natasha Warikoo
Cincinnati, OH

My life begins here, in the United States of America, where opportunity and freedom soar in the air, filter into my lungs, and penetrate my very veins with every breath I take. Although my life begins here, my being extends endlessly on to the ancestors I have, who lived in another century, another world: India.

My grandmother had very little schooling, and her life followed the path of tradition. She married early, had children, and never had a job. As a woman, she took the well-ridden conventional path, her learning put forever on hold. Time passed, and her experience, not knowledge, grew and thrived in the cold Kashmir valley. Her share of hardships can be seen with the naked eye; each wrinkle holds a story, each crease reflects wisdom. Still, I find myself wondering where she could have been if knowledge had been a priority.

I can imagine my grandmother waiting for my grandfather to come home one day, as night began to fall and the moon blew a few gentle breathes on the world, thinking to herself, “What do I want for my children?”

Education was her answer. (more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Dr. Dorothy A. Maddox of Fairfield, California, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

From Brownsville to Bimishi Village

By Dr. Dorothy A. Maddox
Fairfield, CA

I grew up in the southern part of the USA, Brownsville, Tennessee during the 1950s and 60s, the times of the civil rights movement. My parents were good people, but they were oppressed on every side. My family was extremely poor. I had eight siblings. We lived in a three room shack. We made a living from the land that we lived on.

My parents were not educated, as my mother received a third grade education, and my father may have graduated from eighth grade. They were hard-working people, believing that if they worked hard enough, their hard work would eventually be rewarded. My father taught us that the only way that we could ever improve our lives, and the lives of our children, was to get an education. Therefore, I was motivated by the idea that if acquire an education, I could thereby improve my living conditions. Daddy and Moma taught us that if we got a good education, no one could take an education away from us.

(more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Marie P. Horgan of Chelsea, Massachusetts, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

The Library

By Marie P. Horgan
Chelsea, MA

On June 11 many, many years ago, I turned 6 years old. The next day, my Godmother, Ma Tante Madeleine, came to pick me up. We were setting off for the library so I could register for a library card. I was more excited about this prospect than I had been for my birthday!

When we finally arrived at the library, we climbed the seemingly endless stairs to the large, wooden doors at the top. Pushing the heavy, solid doors opened, I entered this sacred space in complete reverence and awe. The moment had finally arrived: I was now old enough to receive the privilege of becoming a “book-borrower”!

I was quite impatient as I answered the librarian’s questions: name, address, age, school, etc. Then, the glorious and sweetest moment in my entire life happened: I heard the words, “Here is your very own library card.” I barely had time to grab the card from the librarian’s hands before I dashed off to the Children’s Fiction Room, which was filled from top to bottom and corner to corner with story books and young adult novels.

I stopped at the first bookcase on my right and immediately pulled out a (more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Melissa Marcou of Millerton, NY, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

A Sweater Makes a Difference

By Melissa Marcou
Millerton, NY

I’m writing as a single mom in America — a waitress — to let you know that my two boys’ education, structure, and growth are very important to me. And to EVERY other mom in this world.

My son, Maximus Lennon, only 7, tells the story and life of John Lennon, whom he is named after, to help people understand that WE ARE ALL ONE. I wear the ONE T-shirt, and I’ve bought and handed out hundreds of ONE bracelets. We’ve sacrificed and saved to send anti-malaria bed nets to Africa, and I sponsor a child named Morris, who just turned 6, in Kenya.

According to our standards, I’m below the poverty level in the US. But I’m not, globally. These children like Morris have the world in their heads, hearts, and minds. They just need a little help to make it all happen. The most brilliant ideas don’t necessarily come from people with money, but people, even children, with (more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Lisa Treumuth of Ann Arbor, Michigan, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

The Breakthrough

By Lisa Treumuth
Ann Arbor, MI

In the summer of 2006, I had the opportunity to travel to Ecuador as part of a service trip sponsored by the University of Michigan. We went to the capitol city of Quito for a month and worked with an organization that paid poor children’s school fees so that they could get an education; to help them succeed, we provided them with free after-school tutoring.

We worked especially hard with the family who let us tutor the neighborhood children in their yard. Though the main tutoring session was in the afternoon, one of us would go to the house each morning to work with the kids in the family who were still too young to go to school.

One child who required a lot of attention was a little four-year-old named Diego. Try as we might to teach him colors and numbers, no matter how many times we drilled him, he almost always mixed up rojo and azul, and he skipped the number siete when counting to ten. We were beginning to wonder if he was beyond our ability to help him.

(more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Mary Kenny of Brooklyn, New York, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

A Message of Hope

By Mary Kenny
Brooklyn, NY

I work as an administrative assistant in an inner-city Brooklyn high school that is struggling to get kids to graduate. We struggle to keep them out of gangs and away from violence. Lots of them are foster kids with no adult guidance. Yet amazingly, many come ready and eager to learn, eager to share their laughter with others. These students form bonds with the adults who serve them that last a lifetime.

Their lives are tougher than most of us can imagine and recently, we had one young man from a rough neighborhood lose his battle with bone cancer. Throughout his struggle, this student was a light in this school that inspired all of us. He attended his classes daily while walking on crutches and kept a smile on his face. He knew the importance of his education. He was determined to graduate and shake off his poverty, and the other students saw this fierce determination. They all came away from this experience with the same message of hope.

(more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Erika Parker Price of Mukilteo, Washington, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

Bluefields Basic School

By Erika Parker Price
Mukilteo, WA

Each September, as I send my children off to school, I wonder what the year will bring. What will they learn? How will they grow their minds?

In America, we debate school issues vehemently — standardized testing, pay for performance, and class size — but we never question whether children have the right to go to school. Of course they do. All children have that right, but sadly, we dole it out unequally across the globe.

Through ONE, I have been able to lend my voice to the fight to end global poverty in our lifetime. I sign petitions, call my government representatives, and donate to other organizations that build schools for children in impoverished countries. But how do I communicate the importance of these issues to the next generation, my own children, who are frequently lost in their own world of homework, school plays, and baseball games?

Of course I can tell them that school is a privilege, but whenever possible I like to show them in a way that their minds can absorb. When my oldest son Ryan was five years old, our family was fortunate enough to vacation in Jamaica. We were searching for (more…)

We asked ONE members for submissions to The Big Read book — a collection of stories from people around the world supporting education for everyone. Although only one member story will be published in the book, the runner-up submissions, including the one below from Courtney Anne Lenoir of Locust Valley, NY, were so good that we wanted to share them with you.

You can show your support for The Big Read and help ensure a pathway out of poverty for children around the world. Endorse the book by adding your signature here.

Thanks for reading!

-Emily Stivers

Singular Story, Shared Destiny

By Courtney Anne Lenoir
Locust Valley, NY

During Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last November, he stated these powerful words, “Our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared.” How does this apply to education as a human right for all children?

We all have unique gifts and life experiences that add to the fabric of who we are becoming as adults. In order to strive for peace, we need to look at each other with humanity, understanding our differences but searching for what unites us as citizens of the world.

I am writing today because of my singular story. On September 11th, almost eight years ago, at the age of nine, my idyllic childhood came to a crashing halt. The events that day had a devastating effect on my family with the loss of my father, but they also affected the nation by forcing us out of the comfort zone we had been living in.

In the aftermath, teens were exposed to the realities of war, inequality and hate. We saw it in Iraq. We see it in Darfur, India, Kenya, Haiti, Palestine and many other developing nations on the globe. These places in great turmoil are regions with enormous inequality. When basic human rights are neglected, individuals become desperate in their thoughts and actions. (more…)