Video of our service project at the RNCC on Tuesday is now up in its full form! (Short highlight clips were posted here earlier.)
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
I just returned from another phenomenal ONE/World Vision service project. As at the DNCC last week – David Lane and Zambian AIDS activist Princess Zulu introduced the event, but this time we also heard moving remarks from special guests Senator Frist, Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush.
I captured video of Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush’s speeches and quickly uploaded them to YouTube. You can check them out below. We got higher quality video of the speeches as well, but it may take a couple days to get that up – and I want to share this experience with ONE Blog readers ASAP.
First, Cindy McCain:
Next, First Lady Laura Bush. (You can also read her full remarks here.)
Here’s a photo of (from left to right) Cindy McCain, David Lane, First Lady Laura Bush, Princess Zulu and Senator Frist assembling care kits.
In the course of a couple hours we packed 2,500 kits, all with simple but essentials supplies like flashlights, wash clothes and basic drugstore medications, to be given out to AIDS caregivers around the world. Below is a very short video clip to give you a sense of the what it was like to be in room at the height of kit-assembly commotion.
We knew it was a possibility but now it’s confirmed. Both Cindy McCain and First Lady Laura Bush will be coming by ONE’s service project at the Minneapolis Convention Center today from 2-5 PM CT If you’re in the area, dropped by and help out. It should be an amazing event.
Below, some photos I took during prep for the event yesterday.
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.
Yesterday, John McCain was campaigning in Sparks Nevada and as always ONE was there to great him.
On the rope line as Senator McCain entered the town hall he spotted my ONE shirt and pointed it out to his wife. Having just returned from Rwanda with ONE it was a familiar sight. I was able to thank Cindy for traveling with ONE and asked her how the trip went. “Amazing,” she said, “it was fantastic.”
Well it must have stayed on her mind. Prior to introducing her husband, Cindy spoke to the packed high school auditorium about the ONE Campaign and her “incredible journey through Rwanda.” She went on to offer her support for the efforts by ONE to make fighting extreme poverty and disease a foreign policy priority during this election season, and for the many organizations on the ground in Africa “offering hope to mothers and children through selfless aid work and service.”
Mrs. McCain went on to comment about the strength of African families and noted that the key to fighting these dreaded diseases will be to empower African women and mothers.
Another video and post from ONE’s Tom Gavin from last week’s trip to Rwanda.
Monday, July 21:
The U.S. launched PEPFAR – the American global AIDS strategy – at the Masaka Clinic in 2004, so it made for a good place for the ONE delegation to visit and assess how things are going. Our delegation met with doctors, nurses, local officials, and patients seeking treatment and counsel from the clinic’s staff. We heard, time and again, the difference that America’s partnership in health care was making in Rwanda and throughout Africa.
The DATA Report, which ONE released earlier this year, shows the progress being made. It points out that, across Africa, nearly 2.12 million people were on antiretroviral therapy by last December, a huge jump from the 50,000 people on treatment in 2002. That means 30 percent of Africans in need of treatment are receiving it. But there remains a major challenge ahead. An additional 1.7 million Africans became infected with the HIV virus in 2007.
After touring the Masaka Clinic, some of the ONE delegation discussed the site visit and the overall trip with reporters.
Cindy McCain penned an op-ed for today’s Wall Street Journal about her recent trip to Africa and the “women are at the forefront of the physical, emotional and spiritual healing that is moving Rwandan society forward.”
Some excerpts:
“It is a humbling experience to be in the presence of those who have such a capacity for forgiveness and care. It is also instructive. If wealthy nations want their assistance programs to be effective, they should look to the women who form the backbone of every society. With some education, training, basic rights and empowerment, women will transform a society — and the world.”
“Women today make up a disproportionate percentage of the Rwandan population. In the aftermath of the genocide, they had to head households bereft of fathers. They had to take over farms, and take jobs previously done by men. But there were opportunities, too: Today, 41% of Rwandan businesses are owned by women…Rwanda today has the world’s highest percentage of female legislators.”
“Perhaps it is fitting that a nation so wracked by death could give birth to a vibrant new age. I know that one thing is clear: Through their bold and courageous actions, these women should inspire not only their fellow Africans, but all individuals — men and women — across the globe.”
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.
