In today’s “What We’re Reading” we flagged a new initiative headed by USAID called the Food, Agribusiness, and Rural Markets (or FARM) program. According to a USAID press release, the program will:
initially focus on select counties in southern Sudan’s ‘green belt zone,’ which spans Western, Central, and Eastern Equatoria states, and where conflict destroyed much of the local capacity for agricultural production during Sudan’s civil war. This area has high agricultural potential and will soon be connected through new road construction to fast-growing markets for farm goods. The FARM program will provide technical assistance and related support to the GOSS Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, as well as state ministries of agriculture.
Dr. Rajiv Shah has actually been in Sudan for the last few days, and is blogging about the trip along with other USAID staff at their new blog here.
Time magazine honored George Clooney yesterday as one of its 100 Most Influential People in 2009 for his activism around the crisis in Darfur. George has been a great friend of ONE, and working with the organization he cofounded, Not on our Watch, he has been an influential player in the fight to focus attention on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur — and on the responsibility of the US government and other world leaders to do something about it.
ONE cofounder Bono writes about Clooney in the Time 100 Issue:
His commitment to ending the atrocities in Sudan is not a role, not a performance. It is real — and it is serious work. Some people think celebrities should stick to the script, stay feted and fetal in their air-conditioned trailers. Some people think it’s an appalling juxtaposition to see the rich and famous in a photo call with the vanquished and the vulnerable.
It is. George knows that. But he also knows that the cameras trained on you and the column inches dedicated to you could be covering something a little more important than, well, you. Like the slaughter of innocents in Darfur. Like the refugee camps full of starving Sudanese.
And he knows the details, the nuances of his and your sides of the argument. Hey, if you’re going to pay attention to George Clooney, he’s going to insist you pay attention to this stuff. Now there’s a radical idea.
Bono also interviewed George on his work in Darfur for a CNN special on the Time 100 hosted by Anderson Cooper that will air Friday night May 1 at 11 PM EDT on both CNN and CNN International. It will re-air on CNN Saturday and Sunday at 8 and 11 PM EDT.
(InterAction President & CEO Sam Worthington is visiting humanitarian workers in Sudan.)
The trip to Khartoum was a typical flight to Europe followed by another seven hours in the air, landing just south of the Sahara. A few key strokes of the customs agent’s computer and my American passport, with its appropriate visa, had a newÂ%C
On Sunday ONE LA and ONE Santa Monica co-hosted a team meeting at the Church in Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Rachel Andres, of Jewish World Watch, was our guest speaker and spoke to us about the Solar Cooker Project.
Right now, women and girls in refugee camps in Chad risk rape and other forms of gender-based violence when leaving the relative safety of the camps to collect firewood – which is essential for cooking the basic food supplies provided by relief agencies.
Solar Cookers are devises that cook food using electricity from the sun’s rays and the Solar Cooker Project aims to improve the safety and survival of women in refugee camps in Chad.
Rachel gave an emotional presentation about this wonderful project and her very recent visit to two refugee camps in Chad where the project has been put to work. (more…)
In late July, Oxfam America sent Nick Anderson, an 18-year-old rising high school senior, on a one-month mission to Sudan. Our objective was to help him get into Darfur where he would serve as Oxfam America’s youth ambassador, meeting with teenagers there so he could return to the United States and help tell their stories.
Below is a video of his trip. Please help us by viewing it and then sending it to all your friends and family.
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.
In late July, Oxfam America sent Nick Anderson, an 18-year-old rising high school senior, on a one-month mission to Sudan. Our objective was to help him get into Darfur where he would serve as Oxfam America’s youth ambassador, meeting with teenagers there so he could return to the United States and help tell their stories.
