The first clip from Bono’s recent trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, just aired.

In the clip, Bono visits Eusebia, a former nurse and grandmother, and Sophia, a 14-year-old who was born with HIV/AIDS and has no parents.

Eusebia now volunteers full-time providing home-based care to adults and orphans living with HIV/AIDS. Eusebia lost three of her own children to AIDS and now looks after 7 family members, in addition to her work in the community. The clinic with which Eusebia works, PASADA, is funded in part by America, via contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and PEPFAR.

Below, a photo from the trip.

-Virginia Simmons

We are writing letters about the Global Child Survival Act and watching Idol Gives Back here in Columbus, Ohio. More ONE members will be coming in later in the night so we’ll have more pictures soon.

-Katie Andrews, Regional Field Organizer

Took a quick pic. Here we are gathered up watching the show while we work. Looking forward to the Bono, Daughtry and ONE parts.

Also- there’s a good chance that a ONE PSA (ad) will run tonight. If you see it, let us know in the blog comments.

-Virginia Simmons

ONE will be on Idol Gives Back tonight – starting in 10 minutes EST on Fox. We’re still at the office – and I’ll do my best to keep updating you about the show here on the ONE Blog.

-Virginia Simmons

Just wanted to highlight a comment that ONE member Valentina Benson just left on my post about Idol featuring ONE tomorrow night.

Below her comments, also find a new photo of Bono from his recent trip Tanzania. Footage from the trip will air on Idol Gives Back on Wednesday night.

Valentina Benson Says:

WOW, this is going to be amazing! SOOO excited that Bono is able to touch the lives of hundreds of thousands of people on this issue. Think of all the young people who will give to this cause throughout thier lifetimes because of this…I got to ask hime a personal question after his speech in Philly on 10/21/05 and I think of his response daily. I asked, “How can I teach my students (5th grade) about the issues in Africa,’ Bono replied, “Make it an adventure, NOT a burden.” Well AMERICAN IDOL GIVES BACK is definitely an adventure.

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[photo caption: Caption is: Bono, U2 lead singer and co-founder of The ONE Campaign and Product (RED), in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania with Eusebia Chilipwele, a former nurse and grandmother who now volunteers full-time providing home-based care to adults and orphans living with HIV/AIDS. Eusebia lost three of her own children to AIDS and now looks after 7 family members, in addition to her work in the community. The health care facility with which Eusebia works, PASADA, is funded in part by America, via contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and PEPFAR.]

On Wednesday night, American Idol is going to feature ONE on their special “Idol Gives Back” episode.

Last year we gained 100,000 new members after Idol Gives Back aired, and this is going to be another incredibly important moment to place the fight against extreme poverty in the living rooms of more than 25 million Americans.

The episode will air at 7:30/6:30c and I’ll be watching and live blogging (in case you don’t have a TV, miss it or just like to read our blog;)

Stay tuned for more updates as the air date draws closer. Until then, an exclusive sneak peak for loyal ONE Blog fans of our co-founder Bono’s recent trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he met 14-year-old Deloy. Footage from the trip will air on Idol Gives Back on Wednesday.

[Photo caption: ONE co-founder Bono meets with Deloy, a 14-year-old boy living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania who lost both of his parents to HIV/AIDS. Deloy, shared with Bono his "memory box," a small cardboard box decorated in wrapping paper in which he keeps mementos from his mother and father. Deloy receives help from a wonderful health care facility in Dar es Salaam called PASADA, which is funded in part by America via contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and PEPFAR.]

-Virginia Simmons

(Martin Edlund of Malaria No More joined President Bush’s on the Ghana portion of the president’s trip to Africa.)

It was a day of firsts for me. My first time meeting a sitting president. My first time racing through streets in a presidential motorcade. My first time seeing malaria education set to music.

President and Mrs. Bush made malaria a big focus of their stop in Ghana, where they were joined by American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks and Malaria No More. Sparks opened a noontime event at the U.S. Embassy with a Super Bowl-sized rendition of the national anthem that made the speakers whimper and moved patriotic listeners to tears.

President Bush took the mic to praise American Idol for raising $17 million for malaria during last year’s Idol Gives Back charity special and share some exciting news:

This spring, Fox and American Idol will once again appeal to viewers to help defeat malaria. On April 9th, the show will raise money to fight malaria in Africa and support other worthy causes in the second round of “Idol Gives Back.” Laura and I hope, and Jordin hopes, that America’s generosity will still pour forth, and we ask our fellow citizens to contribute to this worthy cause. (Applause.)

(Read the full transcript here, including the President’s shout out to Malaria No More.)

It was a short event – half hour all told – but plenty long for us to sweat through our suits in the soupy afternoon heat. “This reminds me of what it’s like to campaign in Texas in August,” quipped a glistening Commander in Chief. Still, he took the time to press the flesh with the hodge-podge audience of scruffy PeaceCorps volunteers, Ghanaian women in traditional dress, and Idol-loving tweens.

Lunch was served on the Embassy lawn flanked by mini-golf versions of the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument while the bar offered bottles of Schweppes tonic in a subtle (okay, probably unintended) homage to the days when the quinine in tonic was used to ward off malaria.

From there, we raced off to Maamobi Polyclinic on the outskirts of Accra where Jordin and Mrs. Bush were greeted by a traditional durbar—a Ghanaian community gathering complete with song, dance, and umbrella-wielding day-glo chiefs.

Jordin and Mrs. Bush did a bed net demonstration and kids sang a malaria song withwith mosquito-wing choreography. It’s what happens when well-intentioned public health professionals try their hand at pop song. Sample lyrics:

From home to home
From school to school
Children are saying
Give us treated bednets
To keep us protected
But if malaria attacks
For lack of protection
Give us early treatment
To save our lives

Somewhere Simon Cowell is scowling fiercely. For my part, I’ll stick with Jordin’s single “Tattoo” which I’m rocking on my (Product)Red iPod as I write this.

-Martin Edlund, Malaria No More

(Taylor works on the ONE Communications team and is currently traveling with President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and Live Aid and Live 8 organizer Bob Geldof. Read all her posts so far from the trip here.)

A lot happened in Accra, Ghana today. First, President Bush met with President Kufuor of Ghana and they held a joint press conference. They about talked about, among other things, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Ghana has received a compact from MCA to build roads and improve infrastructure. MCA compacts go to well-governed countries, countries who fight corruption and invest in health and education for their citizens.

Then it was on to a lunch with Peace Corps workers in Ghana. Ghana was the first country in the world to welcome the Peace Corps. The first 52 Peace Corps workers arrived here on August 30, 1961. Since that time, more than 3,700 volunteers have served in this country (including two of my good friends Monica and Alex Smith – who met when they both served as Peace Corps workers in Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire and later married. Monica was a water and sanitation specialist and Alex educated people about HIV/AIDS).

The Ghanians have a special bond with Americans who serve in the Peace Corps and gave them a big welcome at lunch. The lunch guests, including President Bush and Bob Geldof, heard harrowing tales of Peace Corps life in rural Africa, including one woman who was bitten by a cobra and then discovered that the local clinics had run out of both poison anecdote and pain medication! (Don’t worry – she survived and told her tale to the President in person today.)

After lunch was my personal favorite part of the day: a tee ball game! We watched some Ghanian youngsters play ball – the Little Dragons vs. the Little Saints. I;m not sure my travelling companion, Sir Bob Geldof, understood the intracacies of the game, having grown up in Ireland, deprived of the World Series…but we all enjoyed it, nonetheless.

We also (more…)