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.

People of faith across the nation gather weekly, in our various communities of faith, to worship and to learn more about loving God and loving our neighbors. Working for the end of poverty, and its catastrophic effects, is a powerful way of showing love and reaching out to our neighbors all over the world… thankfully ONE provides a great channel for this expression.

With ideas ranging from participation in ONE Sabbath, congressional letter writing campaigns, partnering with other like-minded organizations, and engaging with local political leaders, we came away with practical tools to strengthen our advocacy skills and great new friendships.

As part of our advocacy training, we discussed the 2012 budget process. Many of us were amazed to learn that our local representative, Congressman Norm Dicks, (WA-6), is a leader on the powerful House Committee on Appropriations. This committee essentially cashes the president’s check for the entire US budget. We were thrilled to learn that he is a longtime champion of fighting poverty, especially saving the lives of mothers and young children.

Gratitude is a very important part of faith, so we were delighted to write letters expressing our appreciation to Congressman Dicks, celebrating his heroic work ensuring that life-saving development assistance programs were not gutted in the final FY12 appropriations bill.

We are especially thankful for his work to help save the Global Fund’s allocation, to enable it continue to provide lifesaving treatment for millions of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients, provide bed nets to prevent malaria, and develop health systems in poor nations that serve those in need. We are proud of the work our Congressman is doing and glad to give our support!

It was an incredible morning. It is an incredible mission. Join us as we love our neighbors by working to make poverty history. Join ONE and make a difference.

-ONE member Heather James, Washington

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!

In addition to participating with our ONE table for the three-day festival, a unique opportunity came up for ONE’s name to “get out there” with a bit of a splash.

Being a dance teacher and studio owner by profession, I’ve had an urge to do a flash mob ever since I ran across the Sound of Music routine in Antwerp, Belgium, a couple years back. So, I felt that this event would be the best “stage” for this to take place locally.

The week before the Fourth, we had 60 dancers gathering for rehearsals. On the day of our first rehearsal (June 28th), it hit me that earlier this year -– back when I first got involved in ONE -– my sister had the great idea for a flash mob down the road to all wear ONE shirts to bring attention to this amazing organization. With the “performance” being only days away, I knew this wasn’t possible for this time around. However, I jetted off a quick email to Jonathan, my RFD, to ask him what he thought of us doing a ONE flash mob one day. (And I let him know we were doing one that coming weekend, but knew that was too soon to try this time around.) Within an hour I had a voicemail from an excited Jonathan, where he said he would LOVE to make this happen…NOW!

So, the gears kicked into place; shirts got shipped from DC…and then delayed…and to make a long story short(ish), the Portland, Ore., ONE team came to our rescue by giving us their newly replenished T-shirt stash. (Thank you, AGAIN, Craig and Carolyn!) And then we had our first rehearsal that night, where I told the dancers about this amazing opportunity, gave a five-minute spiel about what ONE is and what we do to those not already familiar with it, told them about the T-shirts, and was met with GREAT enthusiasm. (And lots of new recruits from among the dancers!)

With our core team running the booth at the festival, we had a great time the first two days sharing about ONE, answering questions, and recruiting more than 120 new members. But the best was yet to come…

At 4 PM on the Fourth, in a break between the “scheduled” entertainment, on came Katy Perry’s “Firework” (yes, cheesy…yet appropriate) blaring over the PA system, the ONE flash mob went into action, and the rest is history.

After the mob, we had a steady stream of people coming to our booth wanting to find out more about what “this ONE thing” was all about. (And most of the dance crew of 60 were walking-advertisements as they kept their T’s on for the rest of the day!)

All in all, on the Fourth of July, we signed up over more than 225 new ONE members that day alone (totaling 350 over the weekend), most of whom were recruited after the flash mob.

We were elated.

Our desire to introduce people to ONE, to show how each of us has the power to be a voice for the voiceless, and at the same time be a blessing and a breath of fresh air to our community was all more than fulfilled. Washington State -– here we come!

-Sharnessa Sandén, Congressional District Leader, Southwest Washington

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).

The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI), a Seattle based nonprofit organization, has developed a new TB vaccine that protects against multiple strains of the disease in preclinical studies. Though a vaccine for TB known as BCG has been used widely for decades, it only immunizes against childhood forms of the disease, its protection waning over time. IDRI’s TB vaccine enhances and extends BCG and protects against drug-resistant strains through its unique combination of a molecule containing four tuberculosis proteins. Dr. Rhea Coler, Vice President of Preclinical Biology at IDRI, explains, “Combining proteins in a vaccine is important because tuberculosis bacteria are variable, and no single protein will be effective against all strains.” In addition, because of human genetic diversity, individuals will respond differently to different proteins. A combination of proteins increases the vaccine’s effectiveness across the board.

IDRI’s vaccine is now being developed for clinical testing in humans, with plans for future studies in an area where the vaccine is so desperately needed—Port-au-Prince, Haiti. IDRI’s vaccine and partnership with Haitian clinic GHESKIO will be the featured cause of the Party with a Purpose (PWAP) in Seattle, June 17th. PWAP is an event for 20 and 30-somethings to plug into the growing global health movement. A sold-out crowd of 1,000 will learn why a TB vaccine is needed, how an IDRI test is cutting down the time for TB diagnosis and why investing in research, especially vaccine research, is one of the best investments in global health. Learn more and join the party.

-Kendra Curtin, Project Coordinator, Infectious Disease Research Institute; PWAP Board Member

“It’s a beautiful day/ Don’t let it get away.”

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.

Sometimes the conversation started with difficulty because let’s face it, the facts are completely overwhelming. Once I began to talk about extreme poverty around the world, people’s eyes glazed over and they absentmindedly reached for their wallet as if on autopilot to fork over a few bucks and go on their way. “No, we don’t want your money,” I would say. That seemed to penetrate through people’s blank stare and grab attention. “We don’t want your money. We want your voice.” Now, let’s talk about the solution.

If the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) is given adequate funding at the June 13 conference, they can save the lives of 4 million children, nearly double the number of ONE members, in five years. Put into context, every single ONE member has the opportunity to speak out for two children somewhere in the world who don’t otherwise have a voice. Put all together, these voices have the potential to make a clamor that echoes around the world.

Just as the U2 concert is a catalyst to engage fans with ONE, parallel movements are building all over the country. In two weeks, 1,000 young people in their 20s and 30s will gather in Seattle to party… (wait for it…) They will Party With A Purpose! This year, they echo the sentiments of ONE to say that vaccines are the most cost-effective way to save lives and prevent disease for a lifetime. And I think people are going to listen because when 1,000 young people dressed in cocktail attire decide to make tuberculosis vaccines the topic of conversation on a Friday night, they make quite the statement.

As I heard the deafening cheers of U2 fans packed in Seattle on Saturday, I realized this is how loud unified voices can be. What would it be like if all 75,000 fans marched right out of the stadium all the way to our state’s capital? What if they could speak together to say that extreme poverty around the world is not acceptable? What if they stood firm together that something must be done to end extreme global poverty?

This is what ONE is doing, one city at a time, to create a global movement that says enough is enough. In Seattle, I am proud to say that in one afternoon, an incredible group of volunteers added 3,620 new ONE members to the movement!

That is the power of one voice multiplied around the world. We are ONE, are you?

-Stephanie Grow, ONE member

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

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.

-Bookda Gheisar

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!

-Christopher Berg

Speakers included Dr. Gary Goldbaum, director of the Snohomish Health District, and Teresa Rugg, a Snohomish County resident who spoke of her insights into the connection between HIV and tuberculosis in Africa. As Dr. Sanjay Gupta of CNN recently stated, in this day and age, TB somewhere in the world could quickly become TB anywhere in the world. Education and awareness is a frontline defense in preventing an epidemic. And evenings like this bring us together so those afflicted, and those close to those afflicted, needn’t feel so alone.

As Dr. Goldbaum told the local newspaper, The Everett Herald, “Locally our concern is preventing tuberculosis and HIV coming together. We are always on guard and encourage screening for HIV but we are always sensitive about TB and HIV together.”

An airborne disease, tuberculosis is particularly dangerous for those infected with HIV. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated one-third of those living with HIV are also infected with tuberculosis, and it’s responsible for nearly half of all AIDS deaths.

“People that are HIV positive can get started on medication and not develop AIDS for a long time,” Goldbaum said. “But we have new cases of HIV and AIDS — we are not doing enough. They are preventable.”

-Sammi Fredenburg

This year, International UN Day fell on Friday, October 24, and Mark was our keynote speaker. We wanted to hear how to engage the next administration, the next congress, and each other in order to lift the profile of the Millennium Development Goals. These are increasingly trying economic times and we feel far behind the curve. Mark embarked on a theme of hope. His interaction with the audience pointed the way. Measurements of progress are encouraging, and they open the doors to greater involvement. US funding has had a massive impact across Africa including TB/Malaria funding, antiretroviral treatment for AIDS, bed nets, and putting children in school. Through the grassroots activism of organizations that have made this a priority, millions of lives are saved and federal aid dollars over the course of this administration have morphed from Millions of dollars to Billions of dollars.

Saturday’s meetings included a relation-building coffee with leaders in the Seattle Islamic community. Mark’s knowledge and experience with Islamic organizations were extremely helpful. A new Islamic Faith-In-Action forum here in Seattle this winter will likely include the ONE Islamic Faith/ONE Sadaqa materials, and we shared the ONE multi-faith videos with them to use as well.

That night, the folk group “Real Folk” put on a benefit concert for ONE and RESULTS. Mark’s message of hope again resounded loud-and-clear encouraging us in our efforts to keep up the good fight in the north county. It’s gratifying to know that we are being heard and making a difference.

These events were also opportunities for the communities to take a photo with the traveling Jubilee USA Drop the Debt banner and sign up to ask the next administration to cancel the odious debts of highly-indebted poor countries.

Up here in Seattle, the group “Puget Sound Millennium Goals Project” couldn’t appreciate Mark’s support and encouragement more. Thank you Mark for an amazing week here, for promoting the great work of ONE and ONE Faith in the pacific northwest, and for helping Washington DC and this “other” Washington, um, “stay close!”

-Sammi Fredenburg

Dear Erin, 
  


Thank you so much for the opportunity to participate in this week’s DNC as a ONE delegate – it was a blast!!  My husband and I stopped by the ONE bus and participated in the ONE Service Project at Manual High School, where I got to meet David Lane and see Dana Buck, my old friend from World Vision.  It felt so good to be a part of the caregiver kit project – Josh from Daughtry told me in the assembly line that it meant a lot to him to do something so meaningful.

At our morning delegation breakfast meeting on Wednesday, I spoke about ONE and distributed wrist bands to our entire WA State delegation.  People were very interested, and I encouraged them to join the movement.  There are a couple of photos attached of us wearing ONE gear at the convention, and a friend sent me this link to a photo from MSNBC, where I was hugging my fellow delegate, Moe Spencer, after Barack Obama was proclaimed the nominee by acclamation:

Thanks so much for all that you do, and for being at both the DNC and RNC – ONE’s issues should matter to all of us, and I’m so proud to be a part of the movement to eradicate global poverty and disease.

Greetings to Josh Peck and Jamie Drummond too! 
  


Sincerely Yours, 

Lori Macklin 

Obama National Delegate 

Washington State