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

Yesterday, the ONE blog featured a post about coffee farmers in Ethiopia from the ONE and Product (RED) trip to Africa. Our delegation saw first hand how agriculture can encourage economic growth in Ethiopia. This morning at “Coffee with Claire,” I made sure that Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill understood the importance of funding improvements in agriculture infrastructure in developing countries.

Every Thursday, the senator invites her Missouri constituents visiting DC to her office for a cup of joe. She talks about legislation she is working on and answers questions. After the discussion, I gave her 26 handwritten letters that students at Webster University wrote asking her to co-sponsor the Global Food Security Act (S. 384). I also asked her to rally support for President Obama’s $1.4 billion appropriations request for agriculture.

In the discussion the senator mentioned the struggles she faces when deciding on legislation. She says sometimes it is difficult to weigh the positives and negatives of each side.

When it comes to weighing appropriations for agriculture, the scale is tipped. Nearly one billion people go to bed hungry each night and malnourishment is the underlying cause of death for 3.5 million children each year. As ONE members it is up to us to make sure Congress creates a lasting solution to hunger by investing in agriculture.

-Nick Stevens, ONE intern and founder of ONE Webster

Several ONE volunteers from Webster University recently came to DC during their fall break to meet with their Senator’s office and discuss issues relating to extreme poverty. Nick Stevens writes:

Fall break. A time for catching up on your soaps and sleep, right? Not for me and three other Webster University students. We decided to trek halfway across the country to lobby for ONE in DC.

On Tuesday, October 21 ONE Webster members Sandra Lemenaite, Dirk Bokeloh, Michelle Overington and I met with Joshua Kremer at Senator Bond’s office next to the nation’s capitol.

We told Joshua about the importance of development aid as part of a national security strategy and thanked Senator Bond for voting in favor of PEPFAR. In May, I delivered more than 700 letters to Senator Bond’s St. Louis office asking him to support the PEPFAR Reauthorization. This legislation has helped to put more than two million African people on life-saving anti-retroviral drugs.

The meeting was the first time I had lobbied in DC. Our meetings in St. Louis were effective, but it was great to meet someone in Bond’s foreign policy department. I look forward to building the relationship from here and hope that ONE’s presence will inspire Senator Bond to co-sponsor poverty ending legislation in the future.

-Nick Stevens, ONE Webster President

Move over Washington University! You may have had vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden in St. Louis for the debate, but ONE Webster had the ONE Campaign Tour Bus! Sporting a giant ONE logo and blasting great music, the ONE Campaign tour bus attracted students as we tabled throughout the day to promote our vice presidential debate watch party that evening.

Not only did we have the bus, but former Missouri Governor Bob Holden put on a pre-debate analysis with a panel of experts from universities across St. Louis. We packed Webster’s Sunnen Lounge with 170 people. After the chairs ran out, people piled in around the sides and back.

I figured the current economic crisis would dominate the debate, but I wanted [ONE to be there to] make sure everyone remembered those who have been living in an economic crisis their entire lives.

Thank you to all of the ONE Webster volunteers and our co-sponsors: Holden Public Policy Forum, Webster Rock the Vote, College Republicans and College Democrats.

-Nick Stevens, ONE Webster President and OCC COA

Tyler Sangermano from the University of Missouri attended a rally with Senator Joe Biden in Columbia, MO last week and managed to not only ask the senator about his plans to combat extreme poverty, but also hand deliver a ONE shirt and capture on video the senator telling a great story about his wife and he thinking about ONE the night before he was selected to be Senator Obama’s running mate.

The audio is a little rough in this video clip, so I transcribed a few key bits of what Senator Biden says below.

First he talked proudly about how he

“shepherded through the new AIDS, malaria, and Tuberculosis proposal [PEPFAR] that went from 30 billion to 50 billion and by the way, George W. Bush deserves great credit.”

And then after Tyler handed Biden a ONE shirt, which he held up for the crowd, Senator Biden told this great story:

“When Barack Obama picked me and asked me to be his vice president, I talked [...to my wife]. And my wife told me the night before… I don’t know about you guys, but my wife is such a busy mother and grandmother and teacher…and all of the notes at our house are literally taped to the bathroom mirrors…so literally notes are on the mirror any where I shave.

And she had a ONE decal, you know the big decals you have like this? Only it was white with blue on it. And she had [written] underneath ONE, she had ’squared’. That’s me. ONE Squared. Between Barack Obama and me we are going to ONE Square it.”

-Chris Scott

Our targeted campaign to get key senators to sign the Lugar-Sununu letter to the Senate leadership in support of the $50 billion reauthorization of PEPFAR, America’s primary vehicle for fighting HIV/AIDS in the developing world, continues in Ohio and Missouri.

Last week, ONE members in St. Louis, MO visited Senator Bond’s office to drop off 918 letters from concerned Missourians requesting that Senator Bond add his name to the letter and show his support for immediate action on passing this lifesaving legislation.

And in Ohio, Blake Waggoner (a new ONE Vote ’08 staff member), Ellen Carmichael (a new CARE staff member in Ohio) and I were in downtown Columbus to deliver 1,440 letters to Senator Voinovich’s office!

Want to get involved? Sign up to be a ONE volunteer here: http://action.one.org/contact/volunteer.html

-Katie Andrews

Missouri Political blog, PubDef Blog, blog is covering the Missouri “State of ONE,” St. Louis “City of ONE” event.

Posted on the site, a nine-minute video of Governor Blunt’s and St. Louis Mayor Slay’s speeches.

I am glad to congratulate the State of Missouri and the City of St. Louis on joining a worldwide movement to recognize the challenges faced by the world’s poorest nations and people.

Without question, disease, famine, and poverty are rampant afflictions that take the lives of millions every year while depriving many millions more of a future full of their potential. Solving these problems is a common interest in our state, our nation and our world. Regardless of political convictions, religious upbringing or personal background, those who fight for the world’s less fortunate are bound by their commitment to service and their concern for humanity.

I have long worked on hunger issues as a member of Congress, and there is one incomprehensible contradiction in this fight: the difference between our ability to fight hunger and our efforts to do so. Eliminating this difference requires us to follow up on the pledges made today with actions that target the sources of poverty’s ills. We can seek solutions through public policy, by contacting our elected officials, in our personal lives, and with faith-based institutions.

The challenges before us are significant, but our response is full of a uniting promise. I appreciate Governor Blunt and Mayor Slay for joining the efforts of ONE, and I thank you all for raising awareness about global poverty.

-Jo Ann Emerson, Member of Congress, 8th District – Missouri

I’m sorry that the congressional schedule would not allow me to attend the ONE Missouri event yesterday. But please know that you have my complete support and admiration for your efforts.

Ghandi once said that “poverty is the worst form of violence.” He was right. We hold in our own hands, the power to prevent and treat AIDS, end hunger, erase the burden of crushing debt, and move millions from dependency to self-sufficiency.

I commend the ONE Campaign for uniting people from all faiths and backgrounds, from all over the world, in this holy mission to alleviate suffering and bring wholeness to humanity.

Thank you for making St. Louis a “City of ONE.”

With best wishes for your mission.

-Wm. Lacy Clay, Member of Congress, 1st District – Missouri

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Blunt, Slay unite with Oliver, et al as ONE

Gov. Matt Blunt and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay presented a united front against extreme poverty this morning, as both presented proclamations declaring that the city and the state share a ONE commitment to join the fight.

Both were featured speakers at a news conference at Washington University, where they were joined by several dozen students and other ONE volunteers.

KWMU (NPR)

Missouri and St. Louis join fight against poverty

ST. LOUIS, MO. (2007-09-06) The state of Missouri and city of St. Louis are joining an effort to bring attention to global poverty.

The world-wide movement is called One: a Campaign to Make Poverty History.

Missouri Governor Matt Blunt and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay signed on Thursday becoming the ninth state and 120th city to do so.

Student Life, The Independent Newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878

Governor, mayor commit to fight global poverty

This Thursday morning, Governor Matt Blunt and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay convened on the Washington University campus with other prominent members of the St. Louis community to declare their solidarity with the ONE campaign in the fight against global poverty and disease.

“As Americans living in the twenty-first century, we enjoy an unprecedented level of freedom and prosperity that really is unequaled in the world,” said Governor Blunt. “But prosperity and freedom are not the only qualities that distinguish us. There is also a can-do attitude that leads more American to service than any other nation in the world.”