This week, ONE’s South Carolina team attended the US Global Leadership Council’s (USGLC) dinner and forum on protecting development and foreign assistance at the Citadel. Field Organizer Charlie, Congressional District Leader Caitlin, super volunteer Hannah, and I listened to Senator Lindsey Graham stress the dangers of making foreign assistance the scapegoat of deficit reduction. He then made the case for smart, results-oriented programs that help save millions of lives and help keep America competitive in a global economy.
I was lucky to be part of a delegation of four South Carolina ONE members who were in the room as the GOP presidential candidates came to Wofford College to debate foreign policy for the first time this nominating season.
The ONE delegation on the stage at the Wofford Debate: Zach, Charlie, Caitlin and Hannah.
On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Michele Bachmann laid out her foreign policy plan to a crowd of veterans and supporters on the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina.
Though her speech was at one point interrupted by a group of protesters, she laid out her plan for foreign aid, security strategy and leading America into the 21st century.
Rep. Bachmann was excited to speak with me after the speech about the importance of foreign aid for development and providing vaccines for preventable diseases like polio and measles. While she didn’t address development aid in her speech, she told me that she stands with many of ONE’s policies to help the world’s poor overcome extreme problems, and to bolster America’s image abroad and protect our citizens.
We are very proud to report we had a great week in South Carolina as we officially launched ONE Vote 2012, our non-partisan campaign to make global health and eradicating extreme poverty a priority in the 2012 presidential election.
I was very lucky to be part of a tremendous group of volunteers last Thursday night as we went out to the Furman University campus in Greenville, South Carolina to be a force for change as we enlisted the support of all of the great folks at the David Crowder*Band show. I’ve done a few tabling events for ONE at other concerts which has always been cool, but the crowd that night was just so supportive and ready to sign on to our petition around the crisis in the Horn of Africa that it was such a beautiful and uplifting experience.
ONE Vote had a busy week here in the Palmetto State as candidates started to flock back down for warmer weather and fall campaigning.
Governor Rick Perry was in Columbia last Tuesday picking up a major endorsement from State House Speaker Bobby Harrell. Our Congressional District leader Caitlin Carey and I went to the event to show support for ONE and to gear up for the next round of presidential debates focused on foreign policy.
Nearly 600 people attended the 34th Annual York County CROP Walk on a beautiful South Carolina Sunday afternoon. Sponsored by the Church World Service, the walks are community-wide events with the goal of raising funds to help fight hunger locally and globally. York County’s CROP Walk is the oldest in the state and ranks 77th in fund raising out of nearly 2,000 national walks.
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.
