ONE member Heather James reports on a faith event in Washington state.
Saturday morning was incredible. Braving construction chaos and downtown parking, a group of 25 interested (and interesting) everyday citizens of Washington State converged in Tacoma to attend a ONE Faith workshop with Jonathan Young, our regional field director and Adam Phillips, manager of faith advocacy at ONE.
We learned about initiatives for global health and poverty relief, and how these things relate to our faith communities. Our goal for the morning? To come away with at least one practical thing a faith community could do to make a difference in the life of one of the 1.5 billion people living in extreme poverty.
Every Fourth of July, the people of Longview, Wash., my hometown, puts on the Go Fourth celebration. It’s centered around our beautiful Lake Sacajawea and draws more than 30,000 people. So, a few months back, shortly after my team and I began working with Jonathan Young (our amazing regional field director), we began thinking about what sorts of opportunities in our area would be good to make ONE’s presence known. Up until this point there hadn’t been any local presence for ONE in southwest Washington, so we felt that having a booth at our local celebration would be a great way to make our debut!
Tonight, the Washington Global Health Alliance will be hosting a big event with A Party With A Purpose to help raise awareness for the tuberculosis vaccine. Even if you don’t live in Seattle, where the party is located, you can still learn more about the party — which is pretty cool in of itself!
A year has passed since the catastrophic earthquake of January 2010 tore through the streets of Haiti, yet a difficult truth remains; despite the millions of aid dollars pledged and the countless relief teams dispatched, Haiti is still devastated on many levels. One of the most serious aftershocks of the earthquake has been the surge in disease spread, making epidemics of diseases that were previously en route to being controlled.
One disease which has become a heightened concern since the earthquake is tuberculosis (TB). More than one third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause TB, making the disease a major global health concern. According to the World Health Organization, there are approximately 9 million new cases of TB each year, and close to half a million are resistant to multiple drugs that once effectively treated the disease. Two million people die of TB each year. Haiti is estimated to have the highest per capita TB burden in the Latin American and Caribbean region (USAID).
U2′s “Beautiful Day” song must have been written on a day like this past Saturday in Seattle. As volunteers from around the Pacific Northwest gathered to hit the streets with the message of vaccines, there was not a cloud in the sky. And for that reason, those lyrics echoed in my head as I challenged myself to talk to as many people as I possibly could about the ONE Campaign. I figured talking to hundreds of strangers about global poverty would be draining, but at the end of the five-hour frenzy, I actually felt incredibly inspired. I never could have guessed how invigorating it would be to add member after member to ONE or to spark someone’s realization that their unique voice could be an incredibly powerful tool.
Yesterday ONE members met in Seattle with Sen. Patty Murray’s staff to discuss the devastating impacts that the House of Representatives’ proposed FY 2012 budget would have on the world’s poorest people. We presented the senator with more than 2,000 petition signatures from concerned Washington constituents. Staff members Mary Conway and Dylan Gilbert assured us the senator remains committed to fighting for federal funding for programs that are critical not just to saving lives but to advancing America’s national security.
Mary and Dylan praised ONE’s focus on educating the public surrounding the consequences of reduced funding. That includes the more than 58,000 HIV-positive, pregnant women would not receive treatments to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission, the more than 400,000 people who would not receive antiretroviral medication to treat their HIV and the more than 300,000 people who would not receive testing and treatments for tuberculosis. The list of devastating consequences goes on and on.
Mary said the work of ONE and other advocates is critical to dispelling misconceptions about aid funding. People who call for reductions in global health and development funding frequently say that in hard times, America can’t afford to help less fortunate countries when so many people are struggling on our soil. What they seldom understand in her experience is that aid funding makes up less than 1 percent of the federal budget, and that the impact of that funding is so dramatic in comparison to the costs.
The environment in Washington, D.C. remains extremely volatile and fluid, Mary confirmed. Now is the time for ONE members across the country to make sure senators and the broader public understand why the House’s proposed cuts can’t be allowed to make it through the upcoming budget negotiations.
-Geoff Patrick, ONE Congressional District leader, Washington’s 7th District
In 2009, U.S. Senators Cantwell and Murray reached out to Global Washington seeking input on strengthening U.S. foreign assistance and examples of successful development partnerships within Washington State. The Senators looked to Global Washington, a regional convening organization, to offer a fresh perspective on global development issues. The paper, “Global Development through Aid, Partnerships, Trade and Education: Recommendations from Global Washington” is the result of the collaboration of more than 45 Washington State experts representing the non-profit, business, government, and academic sectors that proposes specific policy recommendation on four topics: Aid; Trade and Development; Public-Private Partnerships; and Global Education.
On Tuesday, July 6th, Global Washington unveiled its policy paper at an event hosted by Seattle University. Over 400 people attended to hear featured speaker Senator Maria Cantwell, USAID Chief Innovation Officer Maura O’Neill, and the Global Washington member panelists speak on aid, trade, public-private partnerships, and education. It was an exciting day for the global development sector in Washington State.
You can read more about this event in our recap here.
Last Thursday afternoon in Vancouver, WA, three ONE volunteers met with Theresa Wagner, SW Washington Director for Senator Patty Murray. The meeting focused on strengthening ONE’s relationship with the 17-year veteran of the Senate and member of the very important Appropriations Committee. ONE volunteer, Jeff Hollett, talked about ONE’s activity in the area and the three discussed how they became passionate about advocating for global poverty reduction.
After the introductions, they got down to business and asked Senator Murray to check in with the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, and ask him to allocate $51.7 billion to the Foreign Operations Bill during the 302(b) process. They also thanked Senator Murray for her past work to expand treatment and care for people affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and also for her leadership in calling for an increase in personnel at USAID.
The volunteers reported back saying that the meeting was a resounding success!
Theresa mentioned that Senator Murray and Senator Inouye agree on most issues and she took notes regarding the request for $51.7 billion for the Foreign Operations Bill. She seems interested and understood the request. I believe she will pass that request on!
–ONE Member, Evan Hull
Big thanks to Jeff Hollett, Evan Hull and Donna Van Horn!
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.
In 2009, U.S. Senators Cantwell and Murray reached out to Global Washington seeking input on strengthening U.S. foreign assistance and examples of successful development partnerships within Washington State. The Senators looked to Global Washington, a regional convening organization, to offer a fresh perspective on global development issues. The paper, 
Last Thursday afternoon in Vancouver, WA, three ONE volunteers met with Theresa Wagner, SW Washington Director for Senator Patty Murray. The meeting focused on strengthening ONE’s relationship with the 17-year veteran of the Senate and member of the very important Appropriations Committee. ONE volunteer, Jeff Hollett, talked about ONE’s activity in the area and the three discussed how they became passionate about advocating for global poverty reduction.
