Each day this week, we’ll highlight a major accomplishment in the fight against poverty that ONE members helped achieve in 2011. Today, ONE Blog Editor Malaka Gharib discusses some of the major achievements from ONE’s faith-based efforts.
ONE volunteers on tour with the David Crowder*Band
At ONE, we believe that faith is a major driving force behind social change. And that’s why we spearheaded a number of campaigns this year to help motivate and mobilize faith communities to take action on behalf of the world’s poorest people.
Pastors Aaron Graham and Justin Fung reflect on their faith inspirations, encouraging ONE members to be generous this Thanksgiving.
We live in a world where a person’s future is too often determined by where he or she is born.
If you’re born in a certain village or zip code, you have a better chance of dying before 18 than receiving a secondary education. And on the flip side, if you’re born into certain freedoms, you have access to life-giving resources such as an education, health care and a worshiping community.
In the aftermath of the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt talked about the Four Freedoms — freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
As advocates with ONE, we are focused this Thanksgiving on addressing the freedom from want for our African brothers and sisters — both on an immediate level in response to the famine and on the level of long-term sustainability.
USAID’s Dr. Raj Shah gave us an update on the latest surrounding the famine in the Horn of Africa while ONE’s CEO Michael Elliott briefed our national network of faith leaders on ONE’s comprehensive hunger and agriculture campaigns. More than 13 million of our sisters and brothers in east Africa are vulnerable to hunger and lack of access to clean water at this time –- and there is something we can do about it!
During the fall season, and especially around Thanksgiving, it’s critical that we do all we can to fight the famine and secure a future where there is hunger no more. Get your local faith community involved and sign up for ONE Sabbath.
Carolyn Worthge and Adeela Tajdar, ONE and the Tony Blair Foundation’s 2011 Faiths Act Fellows, share an opportunity for people of faith to help put an end to the Horn of Africa famine.
Hopefully you’ve heard about the famine in the Horn of Africa by now — at least 30,000 children have died in the past few months. Even today, lives are still being lost, and more people are being displaced. The stories, pictures and statistics continue to show us that we need to take action to help those who are suffering and prevent this from ever happening again.
Rev. Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl, who works on the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s malaria and HIV/AIDS strategy, shares what it was like to participate in Lazarus Sunday with her faith community.
Lazarus Sunday was an event that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) shared at last fall’s regional meetings. Through an interactive educational program, which included a portion of the Lazarus Effect video, many leaders from within the 65 synods (geographical areas) of the ELCA learned about the importance of accessible, affordable access to ARVs for people living with HIV, in Africa and around the world.
These educational programs stirred interest in those who participated. Many were able to take ideas about lifting up the importance of the video home with them. As the April 10 date drew closer, the ELCA website produced a “spotlight” story on Lazarus Sunday, with links to the materials and video, which ONE produced. We do know that many members accessed the website, and saw the emphasis lifted up for their use.
Stories continue to roll in from churches that got involved on Lazarus Sunday, almost two weeks ago. To recap: almost 1,800 faith communities across the United States and around the world signed up for more information on how to raise awareness about AIDS in Africa.
Here’s a snapshot of the latest:
“The Lazarus Effect” was shown in its entirety to small groups, Sunday school classes, and whole congregations at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church (Derwood, MD) and Zion United Church of Christ (Henderson, KY).
Wow! What a Lazarus Sunday weekend! After months and months of preparation, getting the word out and mobilizing churches to lift their voices, we’re reflecting back on a tremendous campaign.
Nearly 1800 churches across the country signed up to celebrate Lazarus Sunday with ONE, raising awareness about the issue of AIDS in Africa and seeking to engage people in the fight against the pandemic.
Everyone from Evangelicals, Catholics, Mainline Protestants, campus ministries, youth groups and small groups participated in a number of different ways, including Sunday sermons, Sunday school, bulletin inserts and screenings of the entire “The Lazarus Effect” documentary.
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.
