This week The University of Miami’s Department of International Studies teamed up with ONE’s partner organization, CARE to present a panel discussion on climate change as a human security concern. Many ONE members came out for the event to learn more about the challenges that drastic changes in climate present for people living in extreme poverty.

Dr. Sherri Porcelain, senior lecturer with the Global Public Health Department at UM kicked of the event and moderated the panel discussion which covered topics such as resource scarcity, increased spread of diseases like malaria from more active mosquito populations, to the mass migration of people from coastlands and other areas affected by climate change.

As policy makers prepare to meet next month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, we will continue to work on the ground here in Florida and around the country to educate our members of Congress and raise awareness about the deadly costs of climate change to those living in extreme poverty.

For all of you living in California, this is just a quick reminder that the California ONE Membership Conference is taking place this Saturday. The conference is set to feature workshops, experts from ONE and other poverty-fighting groups, and much more. Please plan to join us!

Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP here. Details below:

What: California ONE Membership Conference
Where: Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94158
When: Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 10 AM to 2 PM

Throughout middle and high school, my best friend Laura Whitman and I have been involved in PASC, the Pennsylvania Association of Student Councils. Each year, PASC hosts a state conference for student council members and their advisors to share ideas and communicate between schools. Last spring, Laura and I were fortunate enough to share our workshop, “Be ONE in a Million” with high school students at a District 8 Conference. We were ecstatic when we received word that our workshop had been accepted to states!
“Be ONE in a Million,” focused on ONE’s main priorities and growing ONE membership. The students also viewed numerous ONE videos which were all received very well. The students also participated in a pop quiz to learn about shocking malaria and TB statistics. At the end of the workshop, we even created our own video.

It was absolutely wonderful to speak to so many students about something we’re passionate about and to know that they were genuinely interested. In the spring, Northern Lebanon High School will be hosting the District 8 Conference for PASC. Our theme is “Making Connections” and will feature ONE! Being a senior, I’m sad to think that my last state conference is over; but I’m also very happy to know that Laura and I have made an impact on students who might not have known about ONE. We can’t wait to continue our advocacy through the ONE Campus Challenge in the future!

-Rebecca Guldin, Senior at Northern Lebanon High School Fredericksburg, PA

On Thursday evening ONE volunteers Brian Thomas and Sarah Wonders had the opportunity to get involved with the 3 Rivers Film Festival in Pittsburgh at the premier of Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love. This music documentary, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, opens with Senegalese activist and musician Youssou N’dour singing his anthem to Africa, Wake Up, in which he calls on the continent to unify itself. We follow him on tour at home and abroad, witnessing the power and charisma behind the music – with highlights by N’Dour, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Moustapha Mbaye, Kabou Guèye and Fathi Salama.

At the height of his career, N’dour composed Egypt, a deeply spiritual album dedicated to a more tolerant view of his Islam faith. It was embraced by Western audiences (and won a Grammy) but ignited serious religious controversy in his homeland. This inspiring film continues the call for tolerance.

-Sarah Wonders, PA ONE Member

ONE Webster – Webster University’s ONE Campus Challenge group – put together quite the event for “Stand Up and Take Action” on October 16 by getting 107 petition signatures to Missouri Senator Christopher Bond. The petition asked the senator to stand up for the world’s poor by co-sponsoring the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act (S. 1524). Today, we delivered it.

ONE Webster President Kritter Keirnan, Secretary Ellie Curran and I met with Senator Bond’s Foreign Policy Legislative Assistant, Michael DuBois, and Community Liaison Peggy Barnhart. We began by thanking the senator for co-sponsoring the Water for the World Act (S. 624), legislation that will provide 100 million more people with clean drinking water by 2015. When we presented the petitions, Mike DuBois informed us that he had already been reading the S. 1524 legislation and was optimistic that the senator would sign on very soon. He explained that the bill is congruent with the senator’s beliefs regarding smart power and was a complement to the America’s Global Development Capacity Act (S. 355) that he co-sponsored earlier this year.

Senator Bond has been a champion for the extreme poor in the Senate as of late and he recently co-authored a book that discusses smart power and the importance of US foreign aid to developing countries in southeast Asia. We presented his staffers with an invitation from Webster University President Elizabeth Stoble to speak about these ideas on our campus. They were very open to the idea and promised to pass the invitation along to the senator.

ONE Webster is very excited about the outcome of today’s meeting and we hope we will soon be planning an event for Senator Bond to speak at!

-Nick Stevens, Founder and Online Communications Director for ONE Webster

Two weeks ago I met then California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi. I had read about the peace mission he led during the Ethiopian Eritrea war 1998-2000, but during our conversation we discussed his family’s work with the peace corps early in his adult life. He and his wife Patti began their marriage serving together in southeastern Ethiopia, and Patti served as Assistant Director of the U.S. Peace Corps. As of last Tuesday Lieutenant Garamendi was elected the newest U.S. Congressman from Northern California.

What I’ll remember most about meeting him was the sincerity and connection I felt when with him while talking about global poverty. He asked me to come visit him if elected, and he made me promise to remind him about what needs to be done regarding global poverty. In his own words Congressman Garamendi once stated:

America should be the world’s advocate in promoting human rights throughout the world. Even a minor increase in our foreign aid could have a profound impact in regions of the world suffering from starvation and disease. We know that extremism and violence thrives in the poorest regions of the world, so this is really a national security issue too.

Representative Garamendi will be serving California’s 10th district, and of course we have a “few” ONE members out there who are anxious to meet with their newest member of Congress. Special thanks to ONE Member Brian Webster for his work in making this meeting happen.

Last week leaders from the United States and European Union met in Washington DC for the regular US-EU Summit.

The team at ONE has reviewed the summit’s declaration [PDF] and picked out some of the key points.

Overall the document contains some very positive language on the need to work together to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015 and development has been ratcheted up the agenda as a focus for cooperation. There’s also a separate annex on Development. The main point is that the US and EU want to work together with more urgency towards the MDG Summit and up to 2015:

‘we recognize that a coordinated international effort is needed to assist developing countries accelerate progress towards the MDGs’

The Declaration itself pledges to re-launch US-EU dialogue on development, and the first meeting to re-launch of this dialogue will happen at ministerial level very soon. Ministerial level meetings will thereafter be annual, with meetings of the re-launched High Level Consultative Group on Development to be held in between.

The Annex to the declaration outlines 3 areas for close cooperation between the US and EU:

• Food security and agricultural development: initial focus on Africa, will join efforts in a Global Partnership for Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition; support for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme.
• Climate change: focus on country-driven adaptation strategies and a pledge to concentrate on the development aspects of climate change.
• MDGs: ‘recognizes that a coordinated international effort is needed to assist developing countries accelerate progress towards the MDGs’. As well as Overseas Development Assistance, policy coherence for development, aid effectiveness and new innovative financing mechanisms mentioned.There are plentiful references to measuring outputs and results of development cooperation as well as a focus on Accra and aid effectiveness.

The declaration comes at a timely moment at the beginning of a new European Commission and Parliamentary mandate in Brussels, and gives us a good kick-off to help ensure that achievement of the MDGs remains high on the political agenda in both Brussels and Washington DC.

-Eloise Todd

For all you Californians out there, we’re happy to announce the California ONE Membership Conference. It’s set to take place on Saturday, November 21 in San Francisco and will feature workshops, experts from ONE and other poverty-fighting groups, and lots of opportunities to meet other ONE members and learn how to be an even more effective advocate for the world’s most vulnerable people.

Space is limited, so be sure to RSVP here. Details below:

What: California ONE Membership Conference
Where: Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens Street, San Francisco, CA 94158
When: Saturday, November 21, 2009 from 10 AM to 2 PM

This weekend I had the opportunity to join Pittsburgh PA ONE Members for their monthly meeting. It was really inspiring to listen to the ideas flowing out of this group! We discussed many different topics including the upcoming screening in Pittsburgh of the award-winning film Youssou N’dour: I Bring What I Love. The film chronicles the remarkable story of Youssou N’dour, Grammy-award winning artist and social activist who also serves as a member of ONE’s Policy Advisory Board.

We also discussed the importance of ONE Members engaging their elected officials. This group of PA ONE Members understands the importance of showing them how many of their constituents support them in their efforts to fight poverty and preventable disease around the world. Future plans for the group include more “Call Parties” and scheduling in-district meetings with their Representatives which is easy and very important. I was also able to help explain where we are in the legislative calendar and that ONE has already submitted its request to the Obama administration for 2011.

We will certainly need all ONE Members’ enthusiasm and advocacy to help secure the goals in the budget and thus continue to transform the lives of the world’s most vulnerable!

Recently, Florida ONE members Anthony Wojtkowiak, Marc Wharton and I met with Ms. Willowstine Lawson, Senator Nelson’s regional director for Broward County. During the meeting we talked about how we got involved with ONE and the importance of U.S. leadership in fighting extreme poverty and global disease.

Specifically, we discussed climate change’s adverse impact on developing countries (who have contributed very little to global warming) particularly in the agriculture and water sectors. We asked that Senator Nelson support 5% of any revenue produced from future climate legislation to directly address this issue. We mentioned the benefits that the small increase from the current allocation of 2% would add, for example: increased trade opportunities, more good will towards the US, and a reduced risk of support for religious extremism, just to name a few.

It was a great meeting and a first step towards building a stronger relationship with Senator Nelson’s Broward County staff.

-Johanna Salazar, FL ONE Member