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

As Steve Radelet reported here on the ONE Blog on Monday, after a 18 month delay, the IMF is finally moving ahead with debt relief for Liberia!

Yesterday, the director of the IMF’s External Relations Department issued a statement::

“We have received a large volume of emails on this topic, so this letter is being posted because it is impossible to respond to each message individually….Their strong support to the cause of debt relief contributed to the broad donor support that made this financing possible.”

Jubilee, DATA, the Center for Global Development, Foreign Policy In Focus, and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops did incredible work keeping up the pressure, and ONE members sent tens of thousands of emails pushing the IMF for this action.

It’s not a bad day – when we get proof that our voices are being heard, and that our actions are truly making a difference for the poorest people in this world.

Read the full statement on the IMF site.

-Virginia Simmons

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the Jubilee Act this morning.

Neil Watkins, Jubilee USA Action, gave a great speech on extending the promise of debt relief:

“Debt cancellation now has a ten year record of success and it is a proven tool to fight global poverty…Earlier this year I had the opportunity to see the impact of debt cancellation firsthand when a Jubilee delegation visited the Siavonga Rural Health Clinic in the Zambian countryside.

As we toured the clinic, Grace Chibanda, a pharmacist, showed us the pharmacy, which was full of Anti-Retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS. ‘Debt relief is a good thing,’ Grace told us. ‘It is getting medicines for people who didn’t have it before.”

Rep. Bachus gave an impassioned opening statement about the plight of those living in extreme poverty, “…on our worst days in Washington, we have more food, more shelter and more security than millions of our brothers and sisters have on their best days.” He went on talk about the importance of debt relief as the first step toward breaking the chains of poverty.

Read more from the hearing here.

-Erin Erlenborn, ONE’s Director of Government Affairs

During the last two weeks, ONE members sent more than 48,000 letters and made 4,200 calls to their members of Congress urging them to support the Jubilee Act.

Before we took these thousands of actions, there was a Jubilee bill in the House with just 52 cosponsors, and no companion bill in the Senate.

Now, after Jubilee USA and ONE’s campaigns, 27 more representatives have signed on to cosponsor the Jubilee Act in the House, the Senate has introduced a companion bill and 10 key senators have signed on to cosponsor it.

You can see the full list of representatives and senators who have shown their support by cosponsoring here and here on Thomas.loc.gov.

If your representative or either of your state’s senators are signed on, please thank them using our online tool.

If your representative’s or either of your senators’ names aren’t on the list, there’s still plenty you can do to encourage them.

1.) Write a letter to your members of Congress.
2.) Call their office. All the talking points you need are here.
3.) Write a letter to the editor to your local paper about unjust debt in the developing world and the Jubilee Act.
4.) Schedule a meeting with your representative’s state or DC office. Email giveyourtime@one.org for all the resources you’ll need.

Use the comment thread below to let us know if your representative and senators have signed on yet – and to add your ideas or questions about how to get their support for this critical bill.

Representatives Waters (D-CA) and Bachus (R-AL) introduced the Jubilee Act in the House of Representatives in June.

If you don’t see your representative’s name in the list of co-sponsors below, please call 1800 786-2663 and encourage your elected leader to co-sponsor today!

Currently there are 68 co-sponsors.

Rep. Baldwin, Tammy [WI-2] – 10/2/2007
Rep. Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Bishop, Sanford D., Jr. [GA-2] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Blumenauer, Earl [OR-3] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Brady, Robert A. [PA-1] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Brown, Corrine [FL-3] – 6/28/2007
Rep. Capps, Lois [CA-23] – 6/28/2007
Rep. Carnahan, Russ [MO-3] – 10/15/2007
Rep. Carson, Julia [IN-7] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Christensen, Donna M. [VI] – 6/28/2007
Rep. Clay, Wm. Lacy [MO-1] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Cleaver, Emanuel [MO-5] – 6/7/2007
Rep. Cohen, Steve [TN-9] – 9/7/2007
Rep. Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] – 6/28/2007
Rep. Crowley, Joseph [NY-7] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Davis, Artur [AL-7] – 6/28/2007
Rep. Davis, Danny K. [IL-7] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Davis, Susan A. [CA-53] – 9/24/2007
Rep. DeLauro, Rosa L. [CT-3] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Doggett, Lloyd [TX-25] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Doyle, Michael F. [PA-14] – 8/2/2007
Rep. Edwards, Chet [TX-17] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Ellison, Keith [MN-5] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Fattah, Chaka [PA-2] – 7/30/2007
Rep. Filner, Bob [CA-51] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Green, Al [TX-9] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Grijalva, Raul M. [AZ-7] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Gutierrez, Luis V. [IL-4] – 6/7/2007
Rep. Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-23] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Hinchey, Maurice D. [NY-22] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Jackson, Jesse L., Jr. [IL-2] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Jackson-Lee, Sheila [TX-18] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Jefferson, William J. [LA-2] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Johnson, Eddie Bernice [TX-30] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Jones, Stephanie Tubbs [OH-11] – 10/2/2007
Rep. Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] – 7/30/2007
Rep. Lee, Barbara [CA-9] – 6/7/2007
Rep. Lewis, John [GA-5] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Lofgren, Zoe [CA-16] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Maloney, Carolyn B. [NY-14] – 6/7/2007
Rep. McDermott, Jim [WA-7] – 9/7/2007
Rep. McGovern, James P. [MA-3] – 6/26/2007
Rep. McNulty, Michael R. [NY-21] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Miller, George [CA-7] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Moore, Gwen [WI-4] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Moran, James P. [VA-8] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Murphy, Christopher S. [CT-5] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [DC] – 6/19/2007
Rep. Oberstar, James L. [MN-8] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Olver, John W. [MA-1] – 9/7/2007
Rep. Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Payne, Donald M. [NJ-10] – 6/7/2007
Rep. Rangel, Charles B. [NY-15] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Richardson, Laura [CA-37] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Rush, Bobby L. [IL-1] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9] – 6/26/2007
Rep. Serrano, Jose E. [NY-16] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Stark, Fortney Pete [CA-13] – 6/28/2007
Rep. Van Hollen, Chris [MD-8] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20] – 10/12/2007
Rep. Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Watt, Melvin L. [NC-12] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Welch, Peter [VT] – 9/24/2007
Rep. Wexler, Robert [FL-19] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Woolsey, Lynn C. [CA-6] – 7/11/2007
Rep. Wu, David [OR-1] – 6/19/2007

Yesterday, Jubilee USA wrapped up their 40-day fast with a terrific victory! Senators Robert Casey (D-PA), Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced the Jubilee Act with Senators Joseph Biden (D-DE), John Sununu (R-NH) and Barack Obama (D-IL) as original co-sponsors of the legislation.

Today, Jubilee members are walking the Halls of Congress trying to build support for their bill. Please encourage everyone to call using our ONE 800 number (1-800-786-2663) to garner support for this important legislation.

All the talking points you need are here.

Thanks!

-Erin Erlenborn, ONE’s Government Affairs Director

Today, ONE members are asking their representatives to support the Jubilee Act – a bill that would cancel debt in developing countries that promise to use the savings for poverty reduction.

Developing countries like Haiti and Lesotho, which should be building schools and distributing malaria nets and AIDS drugs, are stuck paying back billions of dollars of debt, often racked up by corrupt dictators.

Please ask your representative to support the Jubilee Act.

Canceling debt has a real success rate for reducing poverty. When Tanzania’s debt was canceled in 2000, for example, the government was able to eliminate school fees and 1.5 million Tanzanian children enrolled in school almost overnight.

Right now, Sub-Saharan Africa pays $13 billion in debt service to wealthy nations and financial institutions every year, almost enough to pay for life-saving drugs to reverse the AIDS crisis that claims 7,000 lives each day.

We hope to send at least 40,000 letters to Congress by Oct 17. Please contact your representative in support of the Jubilee Act today.

ONE Partner Jubilee USA sent us the below post about AIDS, debt, and poverty in Haiti from Global Justice Co-Director Evelyn Sallah.

Haiti: Struggling to Fight the Devastation of HIV/AIDS in the Face of Debt

So I can’t show you how, exactly, health care is a basic human right. But what I can argue is that no one should have to die of a disease that is treatable.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Haiti is home to the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Latin America, with reportedly the worst level of devastation in the Western Hemisphere.

Similar to many parts of the world, especially Southern Africa, HIV/AIDS in Haiti has created a population of hundreds of thousands of orphaned children. Meanwhile youth living in urban areas have three times the likelihood of contracting the disease than those living in rural areas.

Haiti’s crippling debt burden is a major factor in restraining government resources to adequately tackle this serious issue. The Jubilee Act, which would cancel the debt of 67 impoverished countries in the Global South, would free up resources for Haiti to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Race is directly related to this poverty and is exemplified clearly with the disproportionate number of those affected by HIV/AIDS within the African Diaspora.

We can further see this reality when comparing the devastation HIV/AIDS has in Sub-Saharan Africa to Haiti, and recognize similar levels of devastation. As nurses in hospitals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are fighting for space, and clean syringes, so are the nurses in Haiti’s hospitals.

In Haiti, all (more…)

Michelle Karshan, a member of ONE Partner Jubilee USA and former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide foreign press liason, is fasting right now for Haiti. She blogs her perspective on how Haiti’s struggle with debt and economic recovery was ignored by the international press.

In May 2007, while in Haiti, friends told me of the rising cost of living. As I spent what seemed like a lot of money purchasing food to cook three meals a day, I wondered how folks were feeding their families even one meal a day at those exorbitant prices.

Michelet, a young man, considerably thinner since 2004, pointed out that he had personally seen a rise in TB in his own neighborhood. He explained that with the increase in the cost of living people could not nourish themselves enough to fend off disease.

Dr. Paul Farmer has so eloquently drawn this connection between infectious disease and poverty, yet the international financial institutions have yet to reprioritize their economic plans.

Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide often referred to structural adjustment and the debt as “Economic Terrorism”, because globalization and the way it revolves around creating and keeping impoverished countries impoverished results in starvation, disease, illiteracy and death. And, in the end millions of dollars spent on poverty reduction cannot turn a country around without debt reduction and forgiveness.

Last week, while Haiti and each Haitian there still suffers from the backbreaking debt inherited from the Duvalier regime, former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier was heard on the airways apologizing for the atrocities and corruption during his administration.

Not coincidentally, his plea for forgiveness came immediately following Switzerland’s announcement that they would extend the Haitian government’s period of time to wage their legal battle to recover the millions of dollars in Duvalier’s Swiss bank accounts.

Haitian President Rene Preval rightly responded to Duvalier’s maneuvers, stating that while forgiveness is good, justice must prevail. Preval made it clear that his government would continue its pursuit of the monies, and that if Duvalier chooses to return to Haiti he will certainly be brought to justice.

It was extremely frustrating working as the Foreign Press Liaison to presidents Aristide, Preval and Aristide again. All the while, the international press ignored the debt that shackled any efforts towards recovery, ignored the U.S.-led embargo against Haiti’s government, and the economic “death plan” Aristide tried to resist. The U.S. Embassy waged a campaign denying that there was any financial embargo and they harassed press who dared to call the embargo an embargo!

The international press, distracting its readers from the real talking points, lay all blame at Aristide’s door, and characterized Haiti as: “spiraling downward;” “a basket case;” “a failed state;” and “a people unable to govern themselves.”

Yet inside the storm, at the eye of the storm, was globalization, the endless debt, the imposed impoverishment of a country up against a proud nation that believes that justice — economic justice — means accessible, universal health care, schools, literacy programs, and the right to work and farm.

It will not be hard for me to begin my fast today. What has been hard is to eat, knowing that more than 8 million people in Haiti cannot eat one meal a day.”