Chicago
Feb 1st, 2012 3:09 PM UTC
By Field
Regional Field Organizer Tzviatko Chiderov reports on a letter-writing event in Chicago yesterday. This piece is part of a larger blog series on transparency in the extractives industry. Stay tuned for more updates on this topic.
We had a great event for ONE members in Chicago yesterday. A group of all ages and backgrounds gathered at Robert Morris University downtown to hear what ONE is all about, learn of our objectives for the new year, see living proof of smart, effective foreign aid, and find ways to get more involved in their communities.
In fact, almost all of our attendees took several important actions during the hour-long meeting. They wrote letters to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in support of greater transparency, and encouraged the Commission to pass a strong rule requiring companies to disclose payments made to foreign governments for access to their natural resources.
(more…)
Jul 11th, 2011 4:19 PM UTC
By Field
Hours before U2 rocked Chicago’s Soldier Field, ONE volunteers from all over the country made some noise outside of the gates. About 30 ONE members — coming from as far as Alaska and as close as a couple blocks away — gathered in the Windy City to engage the 80,000 attendees of U2′s July 5th concert. Through some old-fashioned pavement-pounding, those volunteers helped the ONE Campaign grow by 2,747 members. We are proud to welcome these new supporters to the community of more than 2.5 million members who can say “I Am ONE.” The volunteers that showed up asked concert goers to sign a petition to government leaders asking them to support the U.S.’s promised funding to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
(more…)
On Wednesday I had the honor of joining ONE’s Great Lakes Regional Field Director, J.D. Bryant, at a meeting at the office of Senator Dick Durbin in Chicago. At our meeting with Senator Durbin’s aide Maria McElwain, we thanked the Senator on behold of more than 70,000 ONE members in Illinois. The focus of our meeting was to ask Senator Durbin to sign a letter to USAID Administrator Raj Shah, requesting that the U.S. pledge $450M over three years to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) at the upcoming pledging conference on June 13th, 2011. As someone with a background in international development, Ms. McElwain had some great questions for us.
We presented the Senator 25 handwritten thank-you cards from Illinoisans for his leadership on funding for programs that help the world’s poorest people, including the Global Fund and PEPFAR, along with a ONE poster with the following acknowledgement: “Senator Durbin: Thank you so much for protecting critical life-saving programs in the 2011 budget. Thanks to you, America will continue to save millions of people from extreme poverty and preventable disease, and help African farmers to feed their nations.”
As a ONE team member in the Great Lakes Region, this meeting was a wonderful opportunity to meet with the staff of a Senator with such extensive foreign relations experience. I look forward to the continued collaboration with Senator Durbin and his legislative team on the important issues that ONE is addressing now and in the coming years.
On Friday, former Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe came to Northwestern University. The 8th Congressional District of Arizona’s former congressman spoke to Northwestern’s Political Union, a community of students interested in global affairs that hosts weekly informal debates. We were excited to bring the former congressman, a fellow Wildcat himself, to a lively discussion about American leadership in foreign aid and international development. Mr. Kolbe reminded us all why we should bother caring about the world’s poorest people even as we tend to our own fiscal house.
Mr. Kolbe speaks to members of Northwestern University’s Political Union
(more…)
Nov 23rd, 2010 10:06 AM UTC
By Field
Last Sunday, I spoke with a high school youth group from the Fourth Presbyterian Church in downtown Chicago about raising awareness about extreme poverty and preventable disease in Africa.
The students watched “The Lazarus Effect” and then engaged in a group discussion about ONE’s issues. They were particularly struck by the fact that relatively few Americans know about these concerns because they are not regularly included in our newspapers or shown on our nightly news as an emergency situation.
I have high hopes that the Fourth Presbyterian students will work to raise consciousness of the conditions in which many of our global neighbors live and spread a message of hope that we can work together to overcome these struggles.
-Anne-Tyler Morgan, ONE congressional district leader for Illinois’ 7th District
Oct 27th, 2010 3:48 PM UTC
By Field
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton came to Chicago for an event with U.S. senatorial candidate, Alexi Giannoulias and other local candidates. I went out with some ONE members extra early, decked out in our ONE shirts to make sure that they saw ONE and were reminded of our efforts to fight extreme poverty and preventable disease in Africa.
During his speech, President Clinton touched on many subjects and fired up the crowd with stories from his years in office, but he took time during his speech to praise former President Bush’s efforts to save lives from HIV/AIDS in Africa by creating the PEPFAR program. President Clinton went on to remind the crowd that America must continue to lead in the fight against AIDS, poverty and malaria!
(more…)
Oct 25th, 2010 4:01 PM UTC
By Field
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
Presidential Adviser David Axelrod with Christopher Shaffer
On Friday night, I had the chance to attend a reception for Presidential Adviser David Axelrod. About 100 people packed into O’Brien’s Restaurant in downtown Chicago to hear Mr. Axelrod speak about the upcoming midterm elections, as he promoted the candidacies of some statewide and local candidates.
After Mr. Axelrod’s speech, he stuck around and conversed with the crowd. I managed to get some one-on-one time with him and thanked him for the administration’s commitment to the Global Fund. He told me that the administration is committed to continuing the fight against global poverty and AIDS and happily took a photo with me in my ONE shirt!
I also spoke with a woman named Janet Fisher who happens to be the cousin of Senate candidate Lee Fisher in Ohio. I mentioned how great Lee, and the entire Fisher campaign, has been with ONE members across Ohio as we urge for continued leadership in the U.S. Senate to save lives in highly impoverished countries. She even told me how she had noticed ONE shirts all over “Hardball with Chris Matthews” the other day!
You never know where you will find ONE, or what you can accomplish by using your voice for the world’s poorest people!
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 Illinois members on Facebook and Twitter.
-Christopher Shaffer, ONE Vote 2010 organizer, Illinois
