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.
So many of us in DC are beginning to get a little too used to the grinding partisanship and divides that we often miss good news when it comes through. Yesterday morning, Rev. Jim Wallis of Sojourners and member of President Obama’s White House faith advisory committee, and Dr. Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention and former supporter of President George W. Bush, sat down on on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program to talk about the moral issues facing the 2012 election. Joe Scarborough opens up with a joke, expecting Rev. Wallis and Dr. Land to come into the studio wearing boxing gloves, since they disagree about a lot. But when it comes to fighting global poverty, both Wallis and Land agree: We must maintain our commitments to the world’s poorest people.
Kirsten Singleton, a long-time ONE supporter, got the chance to volunteer at the David Crowder* Band show in New York City. Here’s her take:
Photo credit: Mike Dodson
It’s pretty cool when you find out that one of your favorite bands, the David Crowder*Band, supports one of your favorite organizations as they raise awareness about one of today’s most pressing injustices. It’s even cooler when you get to volunteer for that organization at your favorite band’s show.
Tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m., ONE members of faith will have the opportunity to join a special call with USAID Administrator Raj Shah. The event will update our national network of churches, local faith groups and ONE members on the famine in the Horn of Africa and discuss FWD, USAID’s initiative to fight famine, war and drought. Michael Elliott, ONE’s new president and CEO, will also be joining us to give an update on ONE’s overall campaign on agriculture.
This call will also help formally launch our ONE Sabbath Thanksgiving campaign, “Fight the Famine, Feed the Future.” Throughout the entire month of November, faith communities across the country will call on world leaders to help break the cycle of famine. So far, 200 individuals and faith groups are participating — but of course, the more voices, the better. We hope you’ll join our call tomorrow afternoon! RSVP for our event here.
Rich Stearns, World Vision’s president and longtime friend and partner of ONE, has a tremendous piece in the Huffington Post called “Cutting Foreign Aid: Not the America I Love.” In his post, Stearns articulates cornerstone reasons why poverty-focused foreign assistance is not only a proud American value, but an effort that needs to be bolstered in these tough economic times. Separating fact from misconception, Stearns also gives us a peek at how he’d advise the current presidential candidates on efforts to save lives around the world.
Here’s an excerpt of his piece:
“If I were advising the Republican candidates, I would encourage them to clear up some misperceptions about American foreign aid.
It is sad that the David Crowder*Band is on their final tour. Not only because I really like the David Crowder*Band, but because their fans really like ONE. Armed with iPads that lit up the dark floor of Denver’s Ogden Theater, ONE leaders Megan Marsh, Joe Marsh, Valerie Bobalek and I signed up several hundred new members on Friday.
We received very few no’s from the Crowder fans and the only reason we didn’t sign up more new members was because of the limited amount of time we had.
While all good things must come to an end, I am excited to see some many new ONE memberships begin. Farewell David Crowder*Band. Welcome to the team fellow ONE members!
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.
