More than 120 ONE members convened in our nation’s capitol last week to lobby Congress on our issues and visit the White House for a leadership briefing. Members kept in contact with each other using the #ONErocksDC hashtag on Twitter.
ONE regional field directors, Congressional District leaders and campus leaders were given a very great opportunity to make some loud noise in Washington D.C. on Capitol Hill last week. We were invited to the White House for the White House Leadership Briefing. This was a joint effort with ONE and two other groups: the Truman National Security Project and the American Academy of Pediatrics. In all, we had more than 120 people directly lobbying to their government officials to ensure they do not cut foreign aid and sustain the current budget to keep the health and well-being of the world’s poorest intact. I went as the campus leader to Illinois State University.
As we get closer to the South Carolina primaries, the candidates are flocking here for a little sunshine and warmth.
Last weekend, Gov. Jon Huntsman attended the Berkeley County GOP breakfast down in Charleston, and I was able to talk with him at length about the economic impact foreign aid will have for American jobs.
He was very engaged, understanding the importance of aid for life-saving drugs for HIV/AIDS, polio and malaria.
He even agreed that with these life-saving drugs comes a new market for American companies to export their goods as the world’s poor come out of poverty and have a better future.
As a parent, advocating on behalf of your children is natural. Using your voice to make positive changes in their lives grows out of your love for them. Learning how to use your voice to help children that you will never meet can be more of a challenge, however. But by working with a good team, like ONE, anything is possible.
This teamwork was clearly on display at President Barack Obama’s visit to Central High, New Hampshire last Tuesday, which I attended with ONE Field Organizer Tom Leary. Late last week, the White House announced that the president would return to Central High to make good on a promise he made four years ago during the 2008 presidential race.
This week, ONE’s South Carolina team attended the US Global Leadership Council’s (USGLC) dinner and forum on protecting development and foreign assistance at the Citadel. Field Organizer Charlie, Congressional District Leader Caitlin, super volunteer Hannah, and I listened to Senator Lindsey Graham stress the dangers of making foreign assistance the scapegoat of deficit reduction. He then made the case for smart, results-oriented programs that help save millions of lives and help keep America competitive in a global economy.
I was lucky to be part of a delegation of four South Carolina ONE members who were in the room as the GOP presidential candidates came to Wofford College to debate foreign policy for the first time this nominating season.
The ONE delegation on the stage at the Wofford Debate: Zach, Charlie, Caitlin and Hannah.
Bill Roedy, former CEO of MTV, explains why he is passionate in the fight to end pneumonia, a preventable disease.
As a music lover and former CEO of MTV Networks International, I’ve spent decades trying to give voice to young people struggling for creative freedom. More recently though I’ve also taken to a new cause: the struggle of babies and children in poor countries just to survive.
Few people can even name the leading global killer of young children — it’s pneumonia — and it claims a child’s life every 20 seconds. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of these deaths take place in the developing world where access to health prevention and care is sometimes complicated.
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.
