The PSA will air for the first time on television during Wednesday’s Gossip Girl. Check it out. http://www.one.org/buzz.

The more people talk, the more we can accomplish. Just sharing your commitment to fighting global poverty with your friends can inspire them to make the same commitment, and start up a buzz that will build into a roar of collective action.

For World AIDS Day tomorrow, I joined some of my friends from TV and film to make a video sharing our commitment to defeating extreme poverty and preventable disease. I hope you’ll watch, and share your own commitment by passing it on to people you know:

http://www.one.org/buzz/

Throughout history we’ve seen how committed people, together, can change laws, break barriers and decide elections. And together, we can defeat extreme poverty and eradicate preventable, treatable diseases including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

But it takes all of us working together across borders, time zones, cultures…through advocacy, action, and awareness-raising.

You can help us raise awareness about ONE and build a better future for millions of people living in poverty. Please join Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Jackson Rathbone and me, Ashley Greene, from Twilight; Leighton Meester, Jessica Szohr and Ed Westwick from Gossip Girl; Corbin Bleu from High School Musical; Hayden Panettiere from Heroes; Tristan Wilds from 90210; Star Trek’s John Cho and Tropic Thunder’s Brandon T. Jackson by sharing our video to create a buzz in your community:

http://www.one.org/buzz/

We’re making progress in our fight, but more remains to be done. And it starts with you…me…all of us coming together.

It all starts with a buzz.

Thank you,

Ashley Greene, ONE Member

PS- In his speech, Bono refers to a petition organized by the ONE Campaign to hold both presidential candidates accountable in the fight to end extreme poverty. Please sign here.

Full speech, Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

-Chris Scott

At September’s special United Nation’s Summit, we had a chance to show a short video to a group of world leaders at the Secretary General’s reception. The film – “Celebrate, Accelerate” – marks the progress on the Millennium Development Goals to date and encourages further, faster commitments going forward.

Hope you enjoy it!

-Weldon Kennedy

Our petition, asking debate moderator Jim Lehrer to ask “Just ONE Question” about extreme poverty now has 107.905 signatures. We’ll keep delivering new signatures as they come in, so sign on if you haven’t already.

-Virginia Simmons

Check out the full remarks from ONE CEO David Lane, Zambian AIDS activist Princess Zulu, Senator Bill Frist, M.D., Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush.

Some posts from our service project at the DNCC here and here

(As I said previously, I didn’t have a tripod of any kind, so if shaky camera movement gives you a headache, you may just want to listen to the footage for now until we have the professional video done and up in the next few days.)

First, Gov. Huckabee talks about ONE:

Next, Gov. Huckabee introduces this clip, a video made especially for the RNCC about Senator Frist, Michael Gerson and Gov. Huckabee in Rwanda:

And then back to the governor:

The Associated Press was the first to break the story with the Boston Globe, ABC News, Entertainment Tonight, E!, and others quickly following suit.

The Chicago Tribune’s blog Swamp describes the ad as “a remarkable show of Matt Damon channeling the words of the wives of the presidential candidates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg – with the actor’s image playing a ventriloquist’s role for a bipartisan and independent team of voices appealing for help for the world’s poorest.” The Defamer says Matt Damon “makes a convincing first lady.” Democratic Blogging Staple DailyKos describes the ad as “non-partisan tackling of global poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS”, and Republican powerhouse blog Townhall breaks the news that the ad “will debut on Meet the Press on Sunday.”

To see what all the fuss is about visit www.one.org/voices and be sure to pass along to your friends to help spread our message of ending global poverty.

Below, a small sampling of the ad’s blog coverage so far:

• The Huffington Post
• TIME’s The Page
• PerezHilton
• DailyKos
• Townhall
• NPR’s Blog
• Real Clear Politics
• Oklahoma Women’s Blog Network
• The APB (Anti-Poverty Blog)
• ABC News Blog
• Chicago Tribune’s Swamp Blog
• Green Mountain Politics
• Hollywood Scoop
• Defamer
• New York Magazine
• The Guardian
• Citizen Sugar
• The Insider
• Pop Crunch
• Observer
• NewsDay
• ecorazz
• Michelle Obama Watch
• Seriously OMG
• CNN Politics Political Ticker
• E Online Blog

-Chris Scott

Check it out at one.org/voices.

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.

You can learn more about the ad here.

-Virginia Simmons

This one is of our CEO David Lane talking to journalists about the ONE Campaign and why it’s so important that we listens to Africans so that we can become more effective advocates.

“We don’t pretend to speak for Africans. We can’t. It would be inappropriate for us to. Which is why listening to Africans is extremely important, and that’s the purpose of our visit this time…”

“Here’s the thing I want to say in Rwanda, just about this trip in particular. Much has been said about President Kagame. I met with him myself in November when I was here and he’s a very impressive man. What I think has our entire delegation dazzled is the quality of leadership at the working level. From the nurses at this hospital to the leaders of this hospital to the ministers and the mayors. It’s not an overstatement to say that we are dazzled by the quality of leadership.

And that’s one of our messages as well: it’s not appropriate to impose. We may think we have the answers in the United States, but an important part of our advocacy is to say that we want to support African leadership that’s working.”

“Our visit wrapped up with a long meeting with Rwandan President Paul Kagame. He talked about his development plan, called Vision 2020, that would result in strong steps forward in education, health, and business growth. At the end, many of our delegation members talked with Rwandan journalists about their meeting and the trip overall. – Tom Gavin”

In the clip:

Democratic strategist John Podesta calls Rwanda’s progress “very, very impressive,” citing the number of people now on ARVs (AIDS treatments), their success in bringing Rwandan citizens into the healthcare system, and the country’s remarkable reduction in child mortality rates.

And Republican strategist Jack Oliver tells the journalist: “We’ve been extraordinarily impressed by the people of Rwanda…[We're] just encouraged, excited and ready to be advocates on behalf of Rwanda.