The eyes of the nation are on South Carolina as voters here go to the polls this Saturday. ONE members in South Carolina have been all across the state talking to candidates, campaigns and voters. To recap some of the past few days, we started last Sunday in Myrtle Beach. ONE had a booth as part of the SCGOP experience exhibition there, and we handed out coffee and talked to voters and SC politicos about our ONE Vote 2012 campaign. The great response and support from everyone we spoke to was inspiring, and showed how these issues really resonate with people from all political backgrounds.
ONE Volunteers Doug and Stuart at the ONE Vote booth in Myrtle Beach
In case you missed it, Bono sat down recently for a great interview with Governor Mike Huckabee which aired Saturday night during his Fox News show “Huckabee.” They discussed the recent World AIDS Day event hosted by ONE and (RED) and the progress being made in bringing about the beginning of the end of AIDS. Governor Huckabee also discussed his involvement with ONE over the last 4 years.
I’m Juliann Vanliew, a ONE volunteer at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. What a great night Monday night as I had the chance to meet Governor Huckabee while he was in West Des Moines on the last leg of his book tour.
There were more than 200 people in line, moms, dads, students and grandparents all waiting to talk with the Governor, but I was excited to be there to talk with him about ONE and the world’s poorest people. When I finally got to meet him I told him I was a ONE volunteer and thanked him for always making time for ONE – especially on the campaign trail and on the trip he took to Rwanda to see first hand where US efforts are helping to save millions of lives. I gave him a few articles written by ONE Fellow Michael Gerson, he said he had already received it earlier in the day, he thanked me for the articles, and all that ONE does.
Last Sunday, Governor Mike Huckabee came to Des Moines, Iowa, to help raise money for a local church. During the event, Iowa State Central Committeeman Wes Enos, who recently spoke about ONE with Gov. Bobby Jindal, had the opportunity to catch up with longtime friend of ONE, Gov. Huckabee.
Mr. Enos thanked Gov. Huckabee for his support for the world’s poorest people, and presented him a copy of “The Lazarus Effect,” a documentary from our sister organization (RED), which details the live-saving efforts of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB.
Gov. Huckabee told Mr. Enos that he is always happy to talk with ONE members, and that he was encouraged to know that people from all walks of life are working together with ONE to help fight hunger and disease for the world’s poorest people.
In between today’s 2 ONE panels at the RNCC, Gov. Huckabee spoke about his experience with ONE on the campaign trail and his time traveling on a bipartisan delegation to Rwanda with ONE earlier this summer.
(As I said previously, I didn’t have a tripod of any kind, so if shaky camera movement gives you a headache, you may just want to listen to the footage for now until we have the professional video done and up in the next few days.)
First, Gov. Huckabee talks about ONE:
Next, Gov. Huckabee introduces this clip, a video made especially for the RNCC about Senator Frist, Michael Gerson and Gov. Huckabee in Rwanda:
Senators Daschle and Frist, Mike Huckabee, John Podesta, John Kasich, Susan McCue, David Lane and Cindy McCain attended the Saint John the Baptist Cathedral in Rwanda yesterday during their ongoing trip to see life-saving U.S. aid at work.
Below, a short video clip from Mike Huckabee talking about the role of faith in the fight against global poverty.
Later this month, the ONE Campaign is set to reach out to senior advisors and key political voices from the Democratic and Republican parties as we continue to make the case that aid works, that American leadership can help a generation of people break the brutal cycle of extreme poverty. To drive that point home, we’re headed to Rwanda with an impressive roster of folks. We’re fortunate to have people who understand what’s at stake, both in terms of the lives which are on the line from poverty and preventable disease, and in terms of the benefit for America’s renewed leadership role in the world through expanded investment and assistance in these terribly poor countries.
The trip will be led by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist – the two men who, for the past year, have co-chaired our ONE Vote ’08 effort. They’ll be joined by people like John Podesta (who was Chief of Staff to President Clinton and heads the Center for American Progress), Mike Huckabee (former Governor of Arkansas who expressed support for the ONE platform when he was running for the GOP nomination), and John Kasich (former member of the House of Representatives who worked as House Budget Committee Chairman). Cindy McCain will join the bipartisan trip as well. Mrs. McCain has a solid history of work in the fight against extreme poverty and preventable global disease. She’s served on the Board of Directors to ONE-partner CARE International since 2005. She founded the American Voluntary Medical Team in 1988, organizing trips for medical personnel to provide emergency care to disaster-struck or war-torn regions. She also serves on the boards for the non-profits Operation Smile and the HALO Trust.
The American people have made an incredible difference in the lives of millions of people struggling to survive extreme, brutal poverty. Our next president has the opportunity to finish the job – to finally erase preventable diseases from the planet and eliminate the kind of suffocating poverty which claims thousands of lives a day. We know the way, but we need our next president to show the will. That’s why we’re bringing this group of people to Rwanda. Each of them is in a unique position to help shape the policies and priorities of the man who could be our next president, and we want the fight against extreme poverty and preventable diseases to be front and center.
In Rwanda, we’ll visit places where PEPFAR is providing funds to save lives at risk from HIV/AIDS. We’ll stop at a school to hear from the students about the importance of their education to break free from extreme poverty. We’ll hear from farmers about their efforts to grow more crops and address the food crisis by growing their way out of it. All told, it will be an eye-opening trip, and one that we hope pays off with stronger policy commitments to the issues we care so much about – ending poverty and disease — from the two leading presidential candidates.
We’ll send updates from the trip and let you know how things are going.
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.
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