We had some great experiences in Nevada recently.

Many of our ONE members in Reno were able to attend the Hillary Clinton town hall meeting at Hug High School, including Ryan Dhindsa along with his brother Kyle and father Hardeep.

Ryan is an 8th grade student in Reno; after seeing a movie about poverty in Africa last year, Ryan had a strong desire to help raise awareness. Ryan and his classmate have raised thousands of dollars to help eradicate poverty. Ryan’s father, Dr. Hardeep Dhindsa, is a local surgeon who donates his time and skills each year in Africa performing surgeries. Upon hearing about this dynamic family Senator Clinton’s staff made sure that Senator Clinton had a chance to meet Hardeep, Ryan, Kyle as representatives of ONE.

All three were able to meet privately with Senator Clinton to discuss ONE and give her a ONE wristband which she immediately put on.

Bill Richardson was also in Carson City recently where he held a town hall meet and greet.

Richardson spoke at length about global poverty. In reference to the role of the president as an international leader, Richardson said, “We need to be concerned about helping the poor nations throughout the world. We need to focus our efforts on issues like international poverty and AIDS.”

Governor Richardson and his staff have been very helpful to ONE in Nevada. The Richardson staff even spent time handing out ONE wristbands at a union rally in March.

John Edwards visited Las Vegas last week for a town hall at UNLV.

A local ONE activist gave Edwards a ONE wristband at the VIP meet and greet and Edwards enthusiastically showed it off at the forum.

Our ONE members were given front row seats and cheered as Edwards spoke passionately about the moral duty we have to eradicate poverty at home and abroad. The local Edwards staff also sported the ONE band and let our local organizers sign up new members at the door.

ONE members were upfront for presidential candidate Governor Bill Richardson’s Saturday’s speech in Belvedere Lake Park, CA, in front of hundreds of southern Californians.

At the event, I shook the governor’s hand and talked to him about ONE. He was well aware of us and the strides ONE has made making Americans aware of extreme poverty and global AIDS. He told me: “We need to do more for Africa. We don’t do enough for Africa.”

Richardson traveled to Africa in January and shares his opinions on what should be done in the Sudan on his site.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson made a campaign stop at a general store in Hooksett, NH, today. I was there with a group of ONE members to thank the governor and urge him to keep talking about what our nation should be doing to fight AIDS and poverty in Africa.

Before his speech, Governor Richardson spoke with us about his comments on making African issues an U.S. policy priority during the April 26 Democratic presidential debate, and he immediately put on the ONE band we offered him.

Then Governor Richardson gave a short stump speech on the steps of the general store. In his speech, he held up his wrist and showed the crowd his ONE band. He explained to everyone that the ONE Campaign stood for our country fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa. He even spoke about the deplorable situation in Darfur. Gov. Richardson said that the ONE Campaign’s mission reflects American values and is important to show in our foreign policy.

We are making sure that all candidates from both parties hear from the ONE Campaign when they come to New Hampshire, but it was an amazing moment to have a candidate for the president of the United States talk specifically about the ONE Campaign and our grassroots movement of Americans that are working to make extreme poverty history.

At a meeting of the “National Action Network,” a civil rights organization founded by Rev. Al Sharpton, New Mexico Governor and 2008 presidential candidate Bill Richardson said that if elected president he’d make Africa a major policy priority.

As quoted in a Thursday’s AP article, the governor said:

“Somehow it’s not considered by American policymakers to have the importance it deserves… Issues related to AIDS, refugees, issues related to governance, international poverty — somehow this continent is forgotten.”

Read the full AP article here.