Today, ONE member Phillip Williams met with his US Congressional Representative, Jim McGovern of MA. Phillip took time to explain ONE to Rep. McGovern and let him know that in 2009, it is not only possible to fight global disease and extreme poverty, but it is a priority!

Phillip told me that Rep. McGovern was very familiar with ONE’s issues and agenda as he is already a co-sponsor of Education for All, Jubilee, and Global Child Survival Act. And as a member of the House Budget Committee, Phillip asked Rep. McGovern to hold, or increase the upcoming budget number for the international affairs account – the part of the budget that contains all of the US’s global life saving humanitarian programs. Rep. McGovern said that he understood the importance of these issues and mentioned how global development ultimately leads to greater national safely and security at home.

Today Phillip took time to let his Representative know that saving lives in the poorest parts of the world is an important issues to him and he urged action in the 111th Congress. But ONE members everywhere should follow the lead of Phillip and contact their new Senators and Representatives to let them know about ONE and our efforts to fight global disease and extreme – stupid – poverty.

-Matthew Bartlett

On Saturday, the ONE Bus headed south to Waltham, MA, to Brandeis University to hold an event with students and their global poverty fighting group called Positive Foundations. Group leaders Allyson and Aka were there to welcome the ONE Bus on campus and we set up shop, explaining ONE to students and signing people up to help add voices in the fight against global disease and extreme poverty.

Hundreds of new people signed up at Brandeis, and stay tuned to the ONE blog for more events and activities with the ONE Bus. You never know what campus or political event the ONE Bus will be at next, but it is a great way to help raise the profile for ONE and the world’s poorest people!

-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer

The Millennium Campus Network held a conference this past weekend to discuss global poverty and health. ONE’s former intern, Sam Vaghar, helped create this new network of Boston area colleges and universities, and their conference hosted over 700 students and included top global health experts like Ira Magaziner, Dr. Paul Farmer, as well as an event with musician John Legend and Dr. Jeff Sachs.

I attended the first day of the event at MIT and immediately noticed a few ONE shirts and many, many ONE bands. After opening statements and a very good speech by Sam, the keynote address was given by former presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards. In his speech, Sen. Edwards spoke about his travels to Uganda and the extreme poverty he witnessed in Africa. He spoke about the need to fight AIDS and malaria to help bring stability to poor nations and citied America’s moral standing in the world.

After his speech, I was able to briefly speak with Sen. Edwards and thanked him for raising the issues of global poverty while on the campaign trail. We even talked about the global poverty speech he gave in New Hampshire.

From the campaign trail to the colleges campuses, people everywhere are organizing and realizing that in today’s world, that we have the resources to fight global disease and end extreme – less than a dollar a day – poverty.

-Matthew Bartlett