Recently ONE members Andrea Locklear, Kay Furlani, Duke Wooters, Cordelia Smith, Beth Rankin and I (Samantha Butisingh) met with Senator Launtenberg’s staff member Talia Young to discuss the work of ONE to make poverty history. We expressed gratitude and thanks to the Senator for signing a funding letter for the Global Fund and asked for his continued leadership on the Global Fund by getting the highest possible amount for the Fund in the State, Foreign Operations Appropriations Conference.We also thanked Sen. Lautenberg for his support for PEPFAR reauthorization last year and asked for his continued support through appropriations.

We hope to keep this line of communication that was established between ONE members and the Lautenberg staff open. It is from constant support from Senators, like Sen. Lautenberg, that we are able to achieve success in our effort to put an end to poverty, hunger, and global diseases.

We thank Ms. Talia Young for meeting with us and the rest of the Lautenberg staff. We are especially thankful for having Senator Lautenberg as a voice for the world’s poorest in the Senate.

-Samantha Butisingh, ONE Campus Outreach Ambassador for Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania

Last Tuesday, Brock Haussamen, Cordelia Smith and I met with NJ freshman Congressman Leonard Lance and his Deputy Chief of Staff Amanda Woloshen at the Congressman’s Westfield, NJ district office. We were absolutely delighted by Congressman Lance’s congeniality, bipartisan support and goodwill towards ONE.

The Congressman was very interested in how each of us became involved with ONE. Brock Haussmann is a retired English professor who is an active crusader against poverty on both the local and regional levels. Cordelia Smith is a former NJ insurance attorney who enjoys her work with ONE because it gives her a chance to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. I became aware of ONE after I incurred a severe brain injury in 2005 and could not resume my career as a publishing executive. A family member introduced me to ONE, suggesting that I volunteer for ONE because it would be intellectually and emotionally fulfilling.

We made the following requests–or “asks”:

• Congressman Lance enthusiastically agreed to cosponsor H.R. 1410, the “Newborn, Child, and Mother Survival” saying, in true bi-partisan spirit “I know and respect Rep. Reichert and I will be sure to introduce myself to Rep. McCollum.”
• We discussed Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank’s efforts to add an estimated $5 billion in profits from IMF gold sales to help sustain low-income countries through the economic crisis, an initiative that Congressman Lance agreed to support.
• We also requested that Rep. Lance express to Rep. Jerry Lewis, Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, that he support the President’s request with a $51.8 billion allocation to the Foreign Operations bill which supports development assistance.

Rep. Lance was very impressed when we told him that there are 5,000 ONE members in his district and nearly 60,000 statewide. Clearly, the sheer size of ONE’s local membership is an asset.
So, to the 4,997 other District 7 members, we hope you will get in touch with us—as well as with Congressman Lance and our other legislators–to make our Central Jersey voices heard. Brock, Cordelia, and I would love to hear from you and meet you.

-Maureen Rooney, ONE Member

After weeks of planning, and the work of local ONE member and Highland Park high school student, Simon Davis, the Highland Park Borough Council approved the proposition linking the northern New Jersey community HIghland Park with ONE’s fight against global poverty and disease.

An official proclamation was signed by Highland Park Mayor, Meryl Frank on Tuesday April 7, declaring the town a “ONE City” in an exciting day for ONE members across New Jersey.

Go ONE!

-Christopher Geer, ONE Field Organizer

I spent the last two days in the New York metro area meeting with volunteers and laying the groundwork for our field presence out there. As the new field organizer for the region, I can’t tell you how encouraging it was to see the energized enthusiasm of the ONE members of New York and New Jersey. My schedule was packed on the trip, as I met with several NYC based volunteers as well as ONE members in Westchester and Rockland counties. On Monday night, I attended a forum on sexual violence in The Democratic Republic of the Congo hosted by the Women’s Enews organization, which included Faida Mitifu, Ambassador from the DRC to the United States, as a panelist, and was moderated by ONE member Dominique Soguel.

ONE member Ruby Thomas near Columbia University Medical Center, Uptown, Manhattan

Next, it was out to Highland Park, NJ where I met with Simon Davis, an area high school student and ONE member that has been doing some really great things lately. He is working on putting together a National History Day project on ONE at his school as well as helping to organize the naming of the Highland Park community as a “City of ONE.”

ONE member Simon Davis, in Highland Park, NJ

It was great to connect some of the active volunteers in the New York metro area and I can’t wait to get on the ground permanently in the next few weeks.

-Chris Geer, ONE Field Organizer

Great report back from Ross of SetonHall University of ONE students and members lobbying Senator Robert Menendez last Monday.

“Last week the luck of the Irish was with the ONE Campaign. New Jersey members of ONE and our partner organization CARE met with Senator Robert Menendez to discuss his support for several anti-poverty bills going through Congress. For my part in the meeting I thanked the senator for co-sponsoring and voting for the Biden/Lugar amendment to the FY09 international affairs budget which, as many of you might know, restored $4.1 billion dollars…”

Read the rest on the ONE Campus Challenge Blog.