ONE is hitting the campaign trail to find out where candidates in New Hampshire, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Florida stand on extreme poverty. Stay tuned for more updates like these from our field team and organizers on the road.
Already, New Hampshire ONE members are taking action to ensure that our elected leaders know that with continued leadership, our nation can help save millions of lives in the developing world.
The other day, ONE member Trey Schaft was at work when New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch came to visit. Trey, fresh off his engagement with New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg was able to speak briefly with Gov. Lynch and thanked him for his past support of ONE.
Gov. Lynch has already made New Hampshire a ONE State, and even spoke at our ONE event with the African Children’s Choir at the New Hampshire State House. Gov. Lynch was complimentary and supportive of our bipartisan efforts and took time to take a photo with Trey – who of course, was wearing his ONE band – and with New Hampshire state Sen. Bob Odell as well as Kate Managan who also is a ONE member!
And this past Tuesday, ONE member Jason Bloxham attended an Americans for Prosperity event in Exeter and wore his ONE shirt. He was able to speak with many of the Senate candidates, and took time to snap a quick photo with Jim Bender, who put the photo on his Senate campaign Facebook page!
All over New Hampshire and across America, ONE members are letting our elected leaders know that US efforts in Africa are helping to end deaths from malaria, turn the tide against HIV/AIDS and help fight corruption in the poorest places on earth. Good people from all backgrounds, faiths and political parties are uniting to ensure that America stands tall with those in Africa who struggle to overcome extreme poverty.
Be sure to connect with other ONE Vote 2010 New Hampshire members on Facebook and Twitter.
New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg was in Hanover, New Hampshire today, kicking off the Presidential Lecture Series at Dartmouth College. ONE members Trey and Matt showed up 5 hours early and hoped to see the speech, but so many students turned out that the venue filled up and they were unable to get in! But Matt and Trey persevered and waited until after the event ended in hopes of speaking with Mayor Bloomberg (even waiting in the pouring rain). And it paid off because as the Mayor was leaving, Matt and Trey got a few moments with him!
Matt told me that Mayor Bloomberg recongnized ONE “in a heartbeat!”. They thanked him for his support of ONE and the fight against extreme poverty and global disease and passed him a ONE band. He said that the Mayor was very excited to see them and inquired about the efforts and status of ONE. They spoke with him briefly and let him know how much ONE appreciates his efforts to help save millions of lives around the world. He was happy to take the band, pose for a picture with them. Mayor Bloomberg is a true champion for the world’s poorest, in part because of his booming voice and outspoken leadership.
All over New Hampshire and across the country, ONE members are hitting the trail, and hitting the college campus, and the town hall meetings, to spead the word about ONE and how recent US efforts in Africa are saving millions of lives from preventable diseases like AIDS and malaria, and dire extreme global poverty. ONE unites people from all faiths, backgrounds and political parties – Republicans, Democrats, and Independants alike – to help ensure that our leaders are taking urgent action to save lives around the world!
I thought I should share some inside skinny on the week we spent in New York September 22-26 at the UN’s special summit on the Millennium Development Goals. We went there to try to attract some attention to – indeed celebrate – the efforts against extreme poverty in recent years, and to call for an acceleration of that progress.
Bono was frantically blogging for the Financial Times in every spare second throughout the week on his way to and from meetings with various leaders. The meetings were many: with Spanish President Zapatero to plan for their E.U. presidency in 2010; with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia to discuss their remaining private commercial debt (think that’s sorted now); with UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to push on the overall Millennium Goals project; and with President Sarkozy of France and President Barroso of the EU to push Europe on delivering an extra billion euros from the EU budget to fight hunger and invest in agricultural productivity in Africa. Bob Geldof arrived a few days into the melee and participated on the opening panel of the Clinton Global Initiative, popped up on CNN, and met with Mayor Bloomberg, Bill Gates and others along the way.
One highlight was unveiling our “Celebrate Accelerate” video to a crowd of activists and leaders (including Bill Gates, Bob Geldof, Jeff Sachs) honoring the “quietest storm in town”: the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon. Another, was dropping in on the “In My Name” launch where we regrouped with will.i.am and other activist allies.
An important part of the week was passing over ONE members’ hunger petition, with 50,000 signers, to Bob Orr, the Assistant Secretary General. The petition targets Ban Ki-moon, and all the G8 leaders, asking them to finance the current $1 billion gap in worldwide agricultural financing.
In addition to all of this, Kim Smith and a team of staff and volunteers brought the ONE Bus to town and, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, parked it in some highly visible locations in the city.
By September 26th, it was clear it had been a decent week. In total there were $16 billion worth of commitments, some old, and some new, focused largely on building upon success to get more kids in school; eliminating malaria deaths by 2015 (yes, that’s got chutzpah – but by acting together it can be done); and renewing efforts against maternal mortality and hunger.
By investing in the fight against extreme poverty we can create new and stable markets where currently there are none; build strong global growth engines that can keep the global economy going when some of us falter; ensure strong health systems; and ensure that other’s instability doesn’t become ours. Above all – because it’s morally the right thing to do.
So now this piece of the campaign goes on to upcoming votes in Brussels on agriculture funding, and a key meeting about financing for development that is happening in Doha, Qatar, in the Middle East, at the end of November. We’ll keep you updated on both.
For more than a year, ONE members have been trailing the presidential
candidates asking them to go on the record with their plans to combat global poverty. Now we’re taking our message to the airwaves with this major new TV ad. The spot spot features Matt Damon with different Americans’ voices – among them Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain and Mayor Bloomberg.
Share this online sneak preview with your friends now, and then watch for it on TV nationally starting Sunday, August 24th.
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.
An important part of the week was passing over ONE members’ hunger petition, with 50,000 signers, to Bob Orr, the Assistant Secretary General. The petition targets Ban Ki-moon, and all the G8 leaders, asking them to finance the current $1 billion gap in worldwide agricultural financing.
