Rana Abuhilal is a 17-year-old ONE member from Dublin, Ohio. She wanted to share an interview she did with a teenager in her community from Sierra Leone, who is doing amazing things for her country halfway across the world.
Tabetha John left her home in Sierra Leone to live in the United States at age six. Ten years later, she continues to stay connected to her home country donating clothes, books and more to Africa.
Born in Freetown, Tabetha grew up around tropical beaches and had a great family. But on a recent trip to Sierra Leone, Tabetha said she witnessed poverty at a whole other level. After Sierra Leone’s civil war, many people lost their homes, and even more than that.
“A lot of people on the streets are missing limbs. I’ve seen homeless people missing their arms, or missing part of their leg,” she says. “A lot of [people] have scars on their faces too.”
Seeing these extreme cases of poverty motivated her. On the other side of the world, Tabetha gives back to Sierra Leone by donating clothes, shoes and books to the homeless.
On Saturday, a group of ONE members attended the 2011 Annual Farm Forum in Piqua, Ohio. ONE members Kara Ford and Carly Rohrbraugh — ONE leaders and students from Ohio State University — and I hoped to get a chance to talk with the powerful new Speaker of the House John Boehner. And we succeeded!
As ONE members, we know the important role that Speaker Boehner will play in funding critical life-saving programs to fight AIDS, hunger and extreme poverty in the developing world — so we were pretty excited to have a chance to talk with him about these matters of life and death for millions.
Much to our surprise, Speaker Boehner spotted us and stopped to introduce himself to us. When we mentioned that we were ONE members, he told us that he was very familiar with ONE and that he has met with ONE’s leadership over the years. We told him how worried we were about funding for programs like PEPFAR, and he told us that he recognizes PEPFAR is working to save millions of lives from HIV/AIDS.
We also talked about how PEPFAR and other programs will be part of President Bush’s legacy for the world, to which he agreed. I even spoke with him about the Global Fund and how transparent and accountable the fund is to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria. He nodded in agreement and told us that there is still a lot more work to be done, too, so we urged him to continue America’s life-saving role in the future. He even took a ONE band and some ONE literature after we snapped a quick photo with him.
We hope that Speaker Boehner will remember ONE and the world’s poorest people as Congress takes action during the next steps in the CR process. We are so excited and proud that he made time for us on Saturday, and we hope that he will carry our thoughts and prayers with him into action in the House.
-Beth Kaltenbach, ONE Congressional District leader, Ohio
Yesterday, I listened to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio give his first address to the Buckeye State. Gov. Kasich is a longtime friend of ONE and helped start our efforts as ONE members when he was a congressman working with Bobby Shriver, co-founder and chairman of PRODUCT (RED) and DATA, and ONE founder on debt relief for Africa in 2000.
During his speech, Gov. Kasich surprisingly talked about his work in Congress to lead life-saving efforts in Africa and also talked about his trip to Rwanda with ONE.
Here’s an excerpt from the speech below and a link to listen to the audio:
“And, of course, I love the work that I was involved in with Teddy Kennedy and Jesse Helms and Bono in an effort to fight poverty. You know, it’s a great story. I got a call from The Terminator. Arnold said, you need to meet this man, he’s out there, he’s meeting with every big official all over the world, he’s got a program to do debt relief in Africa.
And I’d always felt that foreign aid was a little bit of corporate welfare, but I always thought it could be applied well so that if we actually did immunize somebody or vaccinate them in another part of the world when extremists were shouting and criticizing America, the woman there would stand up and say, you may not like them, but they vaccinated my kid. See, I like that idea.
Arnold said, you’ve got to meet this guy. I said, what’s his name? He said, you never heard of him. I said, what’s his name, Arnold? He says, you’ve never heard of him. I said, what’s his name? He said, his name is Bono. I said, Arnold, I’m not an Austrian bricklayer, I know who Bono is. (Laughter) So Bono and I sat down, and he talked about his faith. The song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is not about something he misplaced. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.
Bono says, you’re not getting me in to see enough congressmen and senators. I said — this was in the early days — I said, Bono, look, you’re wearing a black leather suit, Prada shoes, and those crazy sunglasses, they don’t want to be seen with you. He said, John, the guys in my band, they don’t want me to be seen with you. (Laughter) Well, we won. And just a couple years ago, my wife and I went to Rwanda at the request of Bono. Began to see some miracles of reconciliation. It worked.”
-Beth Kaltenbach, ONE Congressional District leader, Ohio
This past Friday, I attended an event with former Speaker Newt Gingrich in Columbus, Ohio. After he spoke, I was first to hop in line to meet him. I gave him a ONE band and told him about ONE’s focus on the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) this year and how US efforts can save million of lives through safe and effective vaccines. I thanked Newt for always making time for the world’s poorest people and for talking to ONE members. He shook my hand and thanked me for what I was doing for ONE.
Then, the following morning, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was in the area, so I stopped by the event to meet him and give him a ONE band as well. Before I could even introduce myself as a ONE member, he saw the wristband in my hand and said “ONE Campaign!” enthusiastically. I replied, “Yes, I’m a ONE member, I know you’ve seen us before. Thanks for the support and always taking time to talk to us!” He said “Of course, thanks for coming to meet me!” I mentioned to him how PEPFAR, a program that President Bush was historic in starting, is saving millions of lives — and as ONE members we hope he’ll continue to support the program if he’s ever in a position of leadership. He nodded his head in agreement and thanked me again for stopping by.
-Beth Kaltenbach, congressional district leader, Ohio
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like this one from our field team and organizers on the road.
ONE members hit the campaign trail hard these past three days, attending five events for Senate candidate Rob Portman all over Ohio to let him know once again that Ohioans care about global poverty and disease. We also thanked him for his work, ideas and efforts around trade, and for his leadership on PEPFAR as the former budget director in the Bush Administration. I urged him to continue that same leadership if he is elected to the US Senate. He told a ONE member he had seen us about a dozen times and that ONE is doing great work! Before I could even thank him, he said he’ll continue to support trade efforts in developing nations, and as he left, he turned around and said, “PEPFAR too!”
Our members also got the chance to meet and thank John and Karen Kasich, supporters of ONE who traveled to Rwanda with us in 2008. We also briefly met former US Senator Mike DeWine, who has traveled to Haiti twenty times and is very supportive of us.
Only 4 days until the election! Be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter for frequent updates.
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like this one from our field team and organizers on the road.
Last night, a couple of ONE members and I attended a meet and greet with Senate candidate Rob Portman in Solon, Ohio to talk with him about efforts to fight global disease, lift millions of Africans out of extreme poverty, and save lives in the developing world.
At the end of his speech, Mr. Portman took a few questions, and someone asked about international trade. After Mr. Portman talked to the audience, he went up to the guy that asked the question about trade and asked him if he was a ONE member, noting that one of our issues was to help encourage trade in developing countries. He went on to say that we have seen a five percent growth in GDP in many developing nations in Africa due to efforts to expand and reform trade.
I thanked Mr. Portman for his ideas and efforts around trade, and for his leadership on PEPFAR as the former Budget Director in the Bush Administration. I urged him to continue that same leadership if he is elected to the US Senate.
Only 15 days until the election! Be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter for frequent updates.
ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like this one from our field team and organizers on the road.
Last night, thirty-two ONE members and I threw on our ONE Vote 2010 shirts and attended a rally on the campus of The Ohio State University, featuring the President and First Lady. We went to raise the profile of ONE and the world’s poorest people, and also to encourage continued US leadership to save lives from HIV/AIDS, malaria and hunger in the developing world. Three of us were able to get up front and even pass a band and say hello to singer John Legend, who performed before the President spoke.
Everyone around us wanted to know what ONE was, and once they heard about our movement to fight extreme poverty and global disease in Africa, we had over fifty people wearing ONE bands and ONE pins!
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Though we were not able to meet the President and First Lady, we are sure that they saw all the ONE shirts and pins in the crowd of over 35,000, and hope that they remember the world’s poorest people!
Only 16 days until the election! Be sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter for frequent updates.
ONE is campaigning to ensure that the Congressional budget does not cut foreign assistance programs like Feed the Future that help people break the cycle of poverty and hunger.
The Horn of Africa is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. More than 11 million people, mostly nomadic pastoralists and farmers in south-central Somalia, north-eastern Kenya, and south-eastern Ethiopia, are severely lacking access to food.
2011 marks 30 years since the first cases of AIDS were documented. Take a closer look at the specific, achievable goals we must hit by 2015 to make this year the beginning of the end of AIDS.
As aid agencies warn more than 9 million people could be affected by a food crisis in East Africa, world leaders are failing to keep their 2009 promises to tackle the causes of chronic hunger and support farmers in the world's poorest countries.
