ONE supporter Ben Affleck sure had a busy day in Washington! Yesterday, Affleck testified on Capitol Hill at a hearing about a bipartisan US approach to address the current problems in eastern Congo. He also sat down with ONE supporter Cindy McCain for an ABC News interview to discuss the current state of affairs in his organization’s work, the Eastern Congo Initiative (ECI) and what the US should be doing in the region.
Mrs. McCain, who recently signed on as a founding member of ECI, joins inaugural ECI supporters Howard G. Buffett, Humanitary United, Bridgeway Foundation, Laurene Powell Jobs and Google. ECI, an advocacy and grant-making initiative that works for and with the people of eastern Congo, tackles four main areas: support for vulnerable youth, support for victims of sexual violence, income generation projects and local peace and reconciliation programs.
Why the focus on Eastern Congo? Here’s a few facts from ECI’s website:
Since 1998, violent conflict, disease and poverty in the DRC have killed more than 5 million men, women and children –- that’s more than any war since World War II.
More than 1.3 million people have been forced out of their homes.
In 2006, less than half of the population of the DRC had access to clean drinking water or sanitation.
In some areas of eastern Congo, 2 out of every 3 women have been victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence.
In 2007, UNICEF estimated that 12,000 children were still involved with armed groups -– four years after the official end of the war.
Check out ECI’s website and be sure to watch the video in the player above.
In case you missed it this morning, ONE’s U.S. Executive Director Sheila Nix and Cindy McCain, longtime ONE supporter and charter member of Women ONE2ONE, were on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss our new initiative Women ONE2ONE.
After traveling to the Democratic Republic of Congo a few weeks ago, Cindy McCain urges the United States to support the United Nations World Food Programme as it strives to feed more than a million men, women and children in the region.
Read excerpts from her op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal below, and the full piece here.
Since mid-January, more than 250,000 people have been displaced in areas of North and South Kivu provinces due to fighting between the Congolese rebels and the army. The northeastern corner of the country, near the Sudanese border, is even worse off. There the violent militiamen of the Lord’s Resistance Army burn homes, murder civilians and kidnap children to turn them into slaves or child soldiers.
In the northeast region alone, the World Food Programme has launched an emergency operation to feed 154,000 people — a tall order during the rainy season, when roads become deep, mud-filled trenches and even airstrips are turned into quagmires. Of all the aid organizations on the ground, it is the biggest and most diversified. In addition to providing food, it is the lead agency for logistics, delivering vital goods such as medicines, blankets and agricultural tools on behalf of other aid groups….
As the world tries to figure out how to cope with the economic downturn, we Americans are presented with the challenge of giving even more. The price of cornmeal has risen by 35% in the last year, and the World Food Programme faces a 2009 funding shortfall of $77 million for its operations in the eastern Congo.
In 1994, in the city of Goma in eastern Congo, I watched as a Danish nurse attempted to feed a baby who obviously was not going to make it. Tears streamed down her face. I held my composure until I got back to my car and then wept, too. That day, I vowed to do all I can to prevent such needless deaths.
I hope that my country chooses to save lives in the Congo by continuing to support the World Food Programme as it strives to provide more aid to the orphans, the sick, and those torn from their homes.
I just got back from the National Press Club where the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy Magazine presented ONE with the 6th Annual “Commitment to Development Award.” Senator John McCain, Cindy McCain, Tom Daschle, and others were in attendance to reflect on and celebrate the successes of ONE Vote ’08 this past presidential campaign cycle.
In talking about ONE, Foreign Policy Editor in Chief Moisés Naím noted that “unless one pushes for obvious ideas, they aren’t obvious for many. Now [these issues] are obvious to millions thanks to ONE.”
Mr. Daschle and Mrs. McCain spoke at length about the necessity of bipartisanship in the fight against extreme poverty—a bipartisanship of which they were obvious examples.
But by far the highlight and emphasis of the ceremony were the immeasurable achievements of ONE members and volunteers all across the country—today represented by Danielle DePas, Michael Castaldo, and Matthew McAllister who came to DC to accept the award. All three were invited to sit on a panel discussion with Steve Radelet and ONE’s Liesl Hickey to discuss topics such as grassroots activism, organizing, and how the US can lead in the fight against global poverty and preventable disease.
We’ll have further posts with photos and video from the event for you shortly. You can read more about the award here.
Cindy and Rudy were greeted by hundreds of elementary and high school students at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia yesterday. But of course their visit wouldn’t be complete without greetings from the ONE Campaign.
Cindy McCain noticed me in the crowd and crouched down beside me for a picture! “I love your shirt,” she said, “I went to Rwanda with ONE!” It is obvious that her experience stays with her as she travels on the campaign trail.
Cindy and John McCain were just about to leave a rally in Downingtown, PA but stopped when they saw my ONE shirt! They came back around and I gave both of them white wristbands, thanking them for their support. Mrs. McCain commented on how much she enjoyed her trip to Rwanda with ONE this summer and Senator McCain thanked me and all of the ONE volunteers he sees at his rallies across the country for being advocates for the world’s poor.
Every voice in the fight against global poverty really does count, whether you have a national podium or a black and white ONE t-shirt in a crowd.
The short video right before Cindy McCain’s big speech tonight showed an image of Cindy in a ONE shirt and ONE hat!
The photo was taken while Cindy was on ONE’s recent bipartisan trip to Rwanda in July. It includes Senators Frist & Daschle and Democratic strategist John Podesta and was taken while the group was touring the Masaka clinic outside of Kigali, where they talked with doctors, nurses, health officials, and patients about HIV/AIDS treatment in Rwanda.
I was hoping to grab a screen shot of the image straight from the video, but the video doesn’t seem to be online yet. I’ll place the image here when it’s available.
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.
