In August, ONE partnered with The Field Museum and hosted Sen. Durbin on a rally around the Water for All Act.

Recently, ONE again joined with The Field Museum to host the Millennium Challenge Corporation and spotlight their compacts that work on clean water in impoverished nations around the world. Most ONE members are very familiar with the MCC and how they work to partner with countries that are taking steps to fight corruption and show transparency and accountability in their own development.

This short video from the event highlights the great work that is being done in many countries. Check it out!

This Monday in Chicago, ONE held a rally at The Field Museum’s Water Exhibit to celebrate the Paul Simon Water for the World Act. The event featured US Senator Richard Durbin, an original cosponsor of the Water for the World Act, and we were joined by many ONE members, local guests and partner organizations.

Before the event started, I caught up with Shayne Moore, a ONE member since inception. Shayne and I talked about the power of “Moms” in the world and the important role that women play both in ONE and in global development. Shayne even told me some of her work with partner groups and how as a mother of three, she felt strongly about supporting the life saving work of the Global Fund.

Sheila Nix, ONE’s executive director, opened up the event by talking about the lack of clean water in many parts of the developing world and just how crucial clean water is to global health issues. She went on to highlight the importance of the Water for the World Act and the potential it has to help usher in clean water to millions of lives around the world. Sheila also highlighted the prominent role that many of ONE’s partner groups play both on the ground in Africa, and in advocacy here in the US. Before she introduced Senator Durbin, she highlighted his efforts on the Water for the World Act, and his greater role in many other essential programs and for being one of the earliest and strongest backers of the Global Fund.

Senator Durbin then spoke about how ONE’s petition around Water for All put a growing bi-partisan force behind the legislation, saying that when it was first introduced, only a few other senators had signed on, but after ONE members across the country weighed in, alongside many other individuals and organizations, the list of co-sponsors is growing and Senator Durbin even noted Senator Isakson’s support from across the political aisle. Senator Durbin even singled out Water Advocates and noted Matt Damon’s special taped message to ONE members.

After the event, we took a quick tour of the water exhibit and after a few ONE members and guests were able to speak with Senator Durbin and thank him for his participation in the event, and for his actions in the Congress to help bring clean water to the world’s poorest people. I even had the chance to thank him for the chance meeting back in New Hampshire when I spotted him in a ONE shirt.

No matter where you live, clean water is one of the most crucial tenants to a healthy life. And no matter where you live in the US, your voice can help bring clean water to millions around the world when you take action with ONE.

-Matthew Bartlett

Right now, ONE Members across the country are making a big push to get clean water out to highly impoverished parts of the developing world by contacting their Senators and urging them to sign onto the Paul Simon Water for the World Act.

But in the late Senator Paul Simon’s home state of Illinois, people can get a chance to learn more about water around the world by visiting The Field Museum in Chicago.

At the Water exhibition, people can discover the importance of Earth’s most vital and fleeting resource and examine how living things adapt to extremes of wet and dry environments, and learn how human behavior alters precious aquatic ecosystems. Become inspired by conservation efforts from around the world and discover what you and your family can do to protect and conserve our planet’s water. Through hands-on activities, immersive dioramas, artifacts, and multi-media, this exhibition presents life’s essential element that unites us, surrounds us, and challenges us, now on display at The Field Museum.

So if you live in the Chicago area – or plan on visiting — don’t miss this chance to see Water at the Field Museum.

-Matthew Bartlett

We’re at the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, IL, this week signing up new ONE members. The festival grounds are, literally, in the middle of cornfields. Driving in, there were corn fields in all directions. I walk out of my hotel room in the morning, and there are corn fields. If you’ve never seen them, corn fields are beautiful first thing in the morning, rolling like waves. Corn fields are definitely growing on me.

We got a little creative to get some attention for ONE as the Cornerstone Festival officially opened tonight. Right after they signed up, some new ONE members helped build a small wall of ONE bands. The wall attracted a lot of attention, and we signed up a bunch of people when they stopped to check it out.

Things really get rolling tomorrow, with a full slate of bands on all of the stages. We’ll keep you posted how we’re doing growing the movement in corn fields out in Illinois.

-Kimberly Cadena

On Monday June 22, 2009, a team of ONE volunteers met with Congressman Aaron Schock (R-18) to educate him about ONE’s legislative initiatives and highlighted the 2515 ONE members currently in District 18. The team discussed President Obama’s FY2010 International Affairs Budget, and highlighted HR 2139Foreign Assistance Reform Act of 2009 requesting consideration of his co-sponsorship. Congressman Schock shared with volunteers about his visits to other countries while he was growing up and his firsthand witness of extreme poverty. He needed little convincing about the significance of ONE’s advocacy efforts in helping the world’s poorest people improve their own lives and communities, and readily understands the importance of maintaining results-oriented worldwide humanitarian efforts as essential to the building of a more stable world.

-Matthew Bartlett

On Sunday, ONE Member and Northwestern student Melissa Kreitner attened a youth rally for Darfur in Chicago. While at the event, Melissa took time to spread the world about ONE and have people sign the ONE Declaration. Even in the rain, people were willing to take time to learn more about ONE and ways to help the world’s poorest people.

-Matthew Bartlett

As ONE members across the nation continue to take action and urge their elected leaders to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease, we are exploring more and better ways to support ONE members in their own community.

If you live in Wisconsin or Illinois, please join us in the first of a series of local ONE Conference Calls to update you on important local actions, events, and opportunities. Your voice is critically important in making sure that our nation is doing all we can to help save millions of lives around the world.

Please RSVP and join us for these calls and look to the ONE blog for more local calls and actions in your community.

RSVP for the Wisconsin call.

RSVP for the Illinois call.

We hope to hear from you soon!

-Matthew Bartlett

At Northside Prep in Chicago, IL, a group of ONE students are making A LOT of noise.

“With a little help from our French teacher and ONE advisor Mrs. Sarah Phillips, we Mustangs recently held an annual “Battle of the Bands” fundraiser to raise awareness in the Chicago Public School community about extreme global poverty. The event featured local bands competing for the title of the best band as well as presentations about ONE, and the three different organizations to which proceeds went: KIVA, SaveDarfur.org and Invisible Children. The event raised a whopping total of $1,535.25. On top of that, over 300 books were donated to Tyler Hilton’s Books for Kids organization. It was a great way to raise awareness about important causes and have a blast doing it!”

-Zlatana Alibegovic (Director of Communication for ONE Northside Prep)

Keep up the good work Northside Prep!

Last week, as the ONE Music Builds Tour continued its travels across the country, we stopped in Chicago where the bands Switchfoot, Third Day, Jars of Clay and Robert Randolph and the Family Band supplied thousands of concert-goers with rockin’ tunes and the opportunity to learn about ONE.

An enthusiastic group of 13 volunteers showed up to work the ONE booth to spread the word about ONE’s mission to make poverty history and to recruit new outstanding volunteers like themselves. Armed with clipboards, ONE pamphlets and pockets filled with our signature white ONE wristbands, they set out to inform and sign-up the excited crowd.

Despite the periodic threat of rain, we were able to get nearly 500 people to sign the ONE Declaration, hundreds of which indicated they would be willing to volunteer in the future. By the end of the night, you couldn’t look left or right and not see one of our ONE wristbands on someone’s wrist. We succeeded in spreading awareness of ONE and we had a lot of fun doing it!

Be sure to keep your eyes and ears open for a Music Builds Tour stop near you!

-Christopher Berg, ONE Field Coordinator

Click here to find out where we’ll be next!

Ben & Jerry’s is officially launching their new ONE flavor ice cream around the country! (We gave you a sneak peak back in February.)

What’s the delicious poverty-fighting flavor you ask? Cheesecake ice cream with chunks of brownie.

Tomorrow, you can expect to hear a bit more about it on the Ellen show- and today you can learn more at one.org/benjerry.

Also- last week ONE super volunteer Chris Cooper stumbled into a Ben & Jerry’s shop in Chicago and found the store and staff decked out in ONE gear and lit. Read his email below.

“I was in Chicago at the Navy Pier during our trip and we were walking through and I saw this guy in a ONE shirt. I asked him about it and he said he works for Ben & Jerry’s. Jennifer and I found the place and everyone was decked out in ONE shirts and bands. I looked at the glossy info card and there was my picture on it! They were surprised, a little impressed, and Jennifer got a picture of us together. They said they didn’t know much about ONE but that they were definitely going to check out the web site. The manger had people waiting in line so they could get that picture. It was pretty cool.”