RNCC

Tonight we urged all of our ONE Delegates to wear their ONE gear to the convention floor. Below, some pics from the night. Let us know if you spotted any of the ONE shirts on TV?

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.

I’m watching the RNC tonight where Senator Frist, Co-Chair of ONE Vote ‘08, just gave a speech that spoke directly to many of ONE’s issues. Some highlights below, the full script after the jump.

“Health builds trust ,and health bridges divides. That’s why America’s investment in medical diplomacy is a long-term investment in national security. Health is a currency for peace.

I’m proud to tell you that it was a Republican president and a Republican-led Congress that launched our nation’s historic initiative to fight AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis in the world’s poorest countries — the greatest global health commitment in history.

Has it made a difference? Oh yes! In just six years, the number of Africans on life-saving treatment jumped from 50,000 to over 2 million! The incidence of malaria has been slashed by two-thirds in some countries. Today, 20 million more children are in school.

But much work remains to be done.

HIV/AIDS continues to hollow out entire generations of people at the prime of their lives. It’s easy for people to lose hope.

And when they do, the vacuum is filled with desperation, instability, and – yes, the seeds of terrorism.”

“we can be the generation to make extreme poverty… history.”

(more…)

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

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:

And then back to the governor:

I grabbed some video with a tiny handheld camera at this morning’s ONE panels at the RNCC. Better quality footage will show up later, but I want to share some highlights with you now.

The first clip below is of Senator Frist introducing the panel and speakers. The second clip is of Michael Gerson talking about his experience crafting PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief).

I didn’t have a tripod of any kind sadly, so if shaky camera movements remind you too much of the Blair Witch Project- you can hold off a couple days until we have the full footage available.

Just like at the Democratic convention last week, the RIAA will be hosting an event to celebrate ONE at the Republican convention tonight.

This time around the band DAUGHTRY will be playing and once again we’re expecting some influential members of the Party and media to attend.

We hope tonight’s event will build upon the work we’ve already done to bring the issue of global poverty to the forefront of this convention.

I’m sitting front and center waiting for the start of ONE’s 1st panel at the RNCC. It’s called “New Frontiers in Global Health & Economic Development.” It’ll be moderated by Senator Bill Frist, and include talks by

• Michael Gerson, syndicated Washington Post columnist, former top advisor to President Bush
• Dr. David K. Apuuli, Director General of the Ugandan AIDS Commission
• Sally Canfield, Senior Program Officer responsible for US government relations for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Josh Ruxin, assistant clinical professor of Public Health and directs Columbia Universities 3 initiatives in Rwanda.

After, Governor Huckabee will join us to talk about his recent trip with ONE to see poverty-fighting at work in Rwanda.

Finally, Senator Frist will moderate a second panel called: “Growth, Opportunity & Stability in the Developing World.” It’ll include talks by:

• Nancy Birdsall, founding president of the Center of Global Development
• Michael Fairbanks, Chairman Emeritus and founder of the OTF Group
• Rwandan Senator Aloisea Inyumba, first Executive Secretary of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission
• Dina Habib Powell, former Assistant Secretary of State of Education and Cultural Affairs for the United States, current Director of Global Corporate Engagement for the Goldman Sachs Group where she is spearheading 10,000 women.

I’ll do my best to capture some video highlights and share them with you as soon as I can upload them.

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.

-Virginia Simmons

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.