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.

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.

Read the full text here.

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.

-Kathy McKiernan

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

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.

The Solar Cookers are built by the women of the camps, providing some of them with the rare opportunity for employment. Rachel spoke movingly about the similarities between the refugees and ourselves. For example, when someone dies, the families bring the surviving family food – just like we do here. The women said their only complaint about the solar cooker was that the pots were a little too small to make enough food for the times when they had guests (a concern we also share – nervousness about preparing a meal for guests). What was moving about this -was that these people have very little food to share – and yet they still did so, willingly and happily. They even offered Rachel and the two other women from JWW water – which is even more scarce than food.

There are about 20,000 people living in each of the refugee camps that they visited and Rachel noted that she did not see one single toy amongst the thousands of children living there. The children, instead, made use of what they had – sticks and rocks and each other.

Somehow, hope remained on their faces. Rachel and the others kept telling them that there are thousands of Americans and people all of the world that care that they are there and that are trying to help them go home again. This made them very happy.

The Solar Cooker Project is special because it is a very tangible way we can make a difference in the lives of a refugee family. Their hope is to expand the project to all of the camps and that it will continue to save lives and improve the health and welfare of the men, women and children of Darfur.

After the meeting, I asked the ONE attendees if they felt that this was a worthwhile event and without exception, they all expressed how much they enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to learn about some of the issues in more detail from someone who had actually been there. We hope to provide our members with a variety of educational speakers moving forward.

We believe that knowledge is power and that by educating our team we can become better advocates for the issues that surround global poverty.

The motto of Jewish World Watch is, “Never Again.” JWW is a member of the Save Darfur Coalition and for more information you can visit their website www.jewishworldwatch.org or www.savedarfur.org

-Amy Quinn, ONE LA Volunteer Leader

Below is a video of his trip. Please help us by viewing it and then sending it to all your friends and family.

-Tim Fullerton, Oxfam America