We’re at the service project. It kicked off with short speeches by ONE President and CEO David Lane and an incredible Zambian AIDS activist Princess Zulu.
Right now, volunteers are running off to prepare kits for AIDS caregivers around the world.
The kits include simple items like wash cloths, cotton balls, soap, petroleum jelly. The kinds of things we take for granted everyday in America. And the kinds of things that can literally save lives around the world. Each bag of cotton balls, for example, will be washed and re-used for months.
I’m attaching photos below. They include photos of the supplies, assembly lines and packing up. Note the ones of people writing notes, every kit includes a handwritten note from the volunteer who assembled it – to the caregiver who will receive it.
I’m taking a bunch of video now too, but have to wait until I have silghtly better Internet to upload them.
Tom Gavin just passed along another video clip from last week’s Rwanda trip.
This one is of our CEO David Lane talking to journalists about the ONE Campaign and why it’s so important that we listens to Africans so that we can become more effective advocates.
“We don’t pretend to speak for Africans. We can’t. It would be inappropriate for us to. Which is why listening to Africans is extremely important, and that’s the purpose of our visit this time…”
“Here’s the thing I want to say in Rwanda, just about this trip in particular. Much has been said about President Kagame. I met with him myself in November when I was here and he’s a very impressive man. What I think has our entire delegation dazzled is the quality of leadership at the working level. From the nurses at this hospital to the leaders of this hospital to the ministers and the mayors. It’s not an overstatement to say that we are dazzled by the quality of leadership.
And that’s one of our messages as well: it’s not appropriate to impose. We may think we have the answers in the United States, but an important part of our advocacy is to say that we want to support African leadership that’s working.”
Later today, President Bush heads to Africa to visit five countries — Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Here at ONE, we are going to watch this trip closely and try to provide you with unique insight and analysis. We’ll have voices from Africa, from Capitol Hill, and from people on the ground providing aid to the African people. We will provide policy briefings for each day of the trip. And ONE will be part of the trip, with our team on the ground in Rwanda and Ghana providing their first-hand views of what’s happening.
This is an exciting moment. In large part because of the advocacy work done by ONE members and other organizations involved in the fight to save lives, President Bush and the Congress have made major strides.
The number of Africans surviving HIV/AIDS thanks to life-saving medical treatment has increased ten-fold.
There are 4.7 million bed nets protecting African children from malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
There are more jobs and greater opportunities, especially for women and families to break away from the cycle of brutal, extreme poverty.
These are major improvements of which we can all be proud. But none of us should be satisfied.
President Bush’s trip to Africa is an opportunity to take a hard look at what still remains to accomplish. Yes, we have achieved a great deal, but 70 percent of sub-Saharan Africans continue to live on less than $2 a day. Experts report that, last year alone, 35 percent of all people living globally with HIV lived in Southern Africa, where 32 percent of all global new HIV infections and AIDS deaths occurred. Tens of millions of people still go hungry each day. In this region alone,13,150 children under age 5 died from preventable childhood diseases and malnutrition.
While in 2000 the U.S. joined 188 other countries to sign onto the Millennium Development Goals, we are falling behind in reaching their 2015 targets.
A few days ago, we asked you to lend your voice to a new challenge for the candidates, calling on them to visit Africa and see first-hand the opportunities and the challenges that people in those countries face. Already, more than 52,000 people have signed that petition, and we are not finished yet. In the next few days, we will take these petitions and deliver them to the presidential candidates, and see if they are willing to step up and make fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease a real priority. If you haven’t signed the petition, add your voice today.
Check back each day as we chronicle President Bush’s trip to Africa. And let us know your thoughts. Join the discussion here on the ONE Blog.
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Later today, President Bush heads to Africa to visit five countries — Benin, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, and Liberia. Here at ONE, we are going to watch this trip closely and try to provide you with unique insight and analysis. We’ll have voices from Africa, from Capitol Hill, and from people on the ground providing aid to the African people. We will provide policy briefings for each day of the trip. And ONE will be part of the trip, with our team on the ground in Rwanda and Ghana providing their first-hand views of what’s happening.
