Asking Voinovich to “Measure Up!” on Debt

Today, as part of Jubilee’s “Measure Up” campaign, a group of global poverty advocates and debt campaigners met with Senator Voinovich’s District Representative in Columbus, Ohio. The purpose of the meeting was to ask the Senator to become a co-sponsor of the Jubilee Act (S 2166). Our group of 4 was made up of Katie Andrews, organizer for the ONE Campaign, Ginnie Vogts, an organizer for Results, Loretta Raiford local volunteer with ONE, and Brian Swarts, national organizer for Jubilee USA.

The group highlighted for Khisha Fallon, the District Representative, the importance of reducing global poverty and the effectiveness of debt cancellation. Katie spoke about debt is holding back a number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa from reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Ginnie pointed out that reducing poverty is critical to increasing global security, as impoverished countries are more vulnerable to political instability and even terrorist activity. Loretta shared her experiences working in refugee camps in Uganda, and seeing the heart-breaking need there for increased investment in health care, education and clean water. Lastly, Brian emphasized the fact that it makes good economic sense to take pro-active steps to fight poverty in places like sub-Saharan Africa, where many countries are so poor that they cannot reduce poverty through economic growth alone - cooperation from other countries is essential.

While Senator Voinovich has not issued a statement on the Jubilee Act, Khisha has said that she will pass on our ideas to him. As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Voinovich would be joining Ranking Member Richard Lugar (IN) and Senator Johnny Isakson (GA) in co-sponsoring the Jubilee Act.

-Brian Swarts, National Field Organizer, Jubilee USA

Dropping Letters in Ohio

On Friday, February 1st, I sent out an email to all the ONE members in Ohio. This message was a call to action urging members to write letters to Senator George Voinovich asking him to co-sponsor the Global Child Survival Act. Wondering if my hope for one hundred responses was perhaps unrealistic, I was blown away when the numbers came flooding in - 1,354 ONE members in the state of Ohio answered the call!

Today I was honored to represent the Buckeye State in the first letter drop for ONE in Ohio. I, along with ONE Field Organizer Katie Andrews, met briefly with Senator Voinovich’s State Communications Liaison Khisha Fallon to discuss the importance of child and maternal health.

As a ONE member, I’ve come to know that every year 10 million children die before their fifth birthday – that’s one every three seconds – nearly all of them from preventable or treatable diseases, like diarrhea, pneumonia and measles. Worldwide, more than 500,000 mothers die each year from complications during child birth. With this action today and actions just like this from ONE members across the nation, the prognosis for mothers and young children in the developing world can be a much more hopeful one.

Thank you ONE members in Ohio for helping me take a stand for children and mothers around the world.

-Chris Cooper, ONE Member (Chillicothe, OH)