The men’s soccer team at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee brought the spirit of ONE onto their playing field last week when they donned ONE shirts during a crucial warm-up session for the quarterfinal game in the TranSouth Conference Tournament. Despite the near-freezing temperatures, the always-professional players managed to not only get their heads in the game, but help raise awareness for the world’s poorest people.

This was a successful first event for Union’s newly formed ONE Campus chapter, which launched this fall. ONE chapter members were on hand in hats and gloves distributing ONE bands and signing up students, all while cheering on their team from the sidelines. The group received a high turnout despite the weather, generating excitement and interest from their fellow fans, all while engaging fellow students about the importance of being advocates for those living on less than $1.25 a day.

Union’s ONE chapter head, Sarah White, was inspired by the energy and interest in this summer’s World Cup in South Africa and felt that partnering with the men’s soccer team would be a good opportunity to help raise ONE’s profile on campus. And with the team attracting players from all over the world -– Bosnia, Serbia, Brazil, Croatia, Scotland, Honduras and Guatemala, to name a few -– White felt the team presented a perfect opportunity to showcase the power of coming together as a team and a campus to advocate on behalf of the world’s poorest.

Visit Union’s new ONE chapter blog and stayed tuned as they begin to establish themselves on campus this year. Congrats Union, can’t wait to see what else you’ve got in store!

According to the Measles Initiative’s announcement, “during the 2010 WNBA season, the Atlanta Dream, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm will each host a special Vaccinate a Village Night to help expand awareness and education for the Measles Initiative. At each arena, efforts will include various on-court promotions, public announcements and information booths providing fans with ways to get involved. WNBA Cares will also be making a donation of $25,000 to support the Measles Initiative, which will ensure the vaccination of the same number of children.”

Additionally, WNBA All-Star Candace Parker, alongside NBA legend (and prominent philanthropist) Dikembe Mutombo will lend their voices toward this project. They’ll both star in a public service announcement focused on measles that will debut during the 2010 WNBA Playoffs.

Measles is a highly contagious virus that kills hundreds of children every day, but an effective vaccine exists to help prevent its spread. The Measles Initiative has supported the vaccination of more than 700 million children, helping to reduce measles deaths by 78 percent globally since 2000. This reduction in measles deaths accounts for approximately 23 percent of all progress to date on Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 — an impressive statistic worth remembering as we look forward to the MDG Summit in September and ONE’s broader work on vaccines this fall and into next year.

Just moments ago, Ghana and Uruguay kicked-off their big World Cup match. Ghana’s the only African team still left in the widely-loved soccer tournament, so here’s hoping that they go far.

But the Black Stars haven’t just been working hard on the field. They’ve teamed up with United Against Malaria to help save lives off the field, too. They’ve shown malaria PSAs, talked about the importance of using bed nets and other malaria prevention tools, encouraged their communities to join in the fight.

To learn more about how you can help kick malaria to the curb, check out United Against Malaria today!

Since football is one of the greatest traditions here,we thought it would be a great place to start. With that, one of the favorite things students like to do at games here (and many other places) is blow up beach balls and send them flying throughout the crowd. Piggy-backing on this idea – we got together and spray painted beach balls all black and then painted the ONE logo in white on them. We did this at an awesome pre-game tailgate with our ONE members.

When we launched the balls in the air we got a lot of questions about what the logo meant and why we were doing it. It made for a fun picture and was definitely a great way to get the word out. Just because the administration or faculty are being difficult doesn’t mean there is nothing left to try – think outside the box a little and it can end up being the best action you take.

-Stephanie Parrish, University of Michigan ’11

ONE member Sarah Archer of Mont Vernon, NH held a ONE Run yesterday to raise awareness of the plight of the world’s poorest people. Sarah organized a 5K run, a 5K walk, and a 1 mile walk, that attracted over 70 local New Hampshire residents at her high school.

The weather in New Hampshire was beautiful and although we were a continent away, participants wore ONE bands and some wore ONE shirts to show support for ONE and the world’s poorest people. Sarah created a fun and healthy way for people to spread the word about ONE and draw attention to the emergency crisis of global poverty.

Over a billion people in the world live in extreme poverty and die by the millions from preventable and treatable disease, or lack of clean water. But our nation is taking new and great steps to fight extreme poverty and save lives. By joining ONE and taking action by writing letters, sending emails and making phone calls to your leaders, and by building local awareness events like this ONE Run, we can raise our voices and make sure that our country is taking even bigger are greater steps to make poverty history!

Way to go Sarah!

-Matthew Bartlett

The Guardian: Plan to put 16m African children into school

At the East African Health and Scientific Conference in Kenya on Wednesday, experts testified that constraints in the health sector are exacerbating health problems in rural communities. Some blamed conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund in the early 1990s.

Daily Nation: Shortage of health staff hits East African states

An editorial by Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, appeared in today’s Washington Times. The piece praises President Bush’s work in Africa, noting that this story hasn’t made headlines in the United States but is making headlines around the world.

Washington Times: Bush’s Africa legacy

-Chandler Smith

Beginning Sunday, March 16 through Saturday, March 22, restaurants will invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. These donations to UNICEF will go towards improving access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools and communities, while promoting safe hygiene practices in more than 90 countries around the world. Plug in your zip code to find restaurants in your city.

World Water Day 2008 will be celebrated by the UN on Thursday, March 20. In New York you can help bring awareness to the sanitation crisis by “standing up for those that can’t sit down.”

PSI will host a World Water Day discussion about their Safe Water Programs, the successes and challenges, and the way forward on March 20 from 3:30-5:00 PM. If interested, please RSVP to akhanna@psi.org.

Celebrate World Water Day with Water For People on Friday, March 21. Raffles and speakers-including Amy Hart – Filmmaker, WATER FIRST-will make the evening one to remember.

If in Louisville, KY, join Edge Outreach on March 21, 2008 for a night of music, water and film. Join speakers and hear stories of what is being done for those without water and sanitation.

The DC Environmental Film Festival will have several water movies showing on World Water Day March 22. There is also a panel of water experts at 4:00 PM that day from Water Advocates, the Global Water Challenge, Natural Resources Defense Council and ConservationStrategy.

Join the Global Water Challenge, Water Advocates and others at the Student Movement for Real Change event on March 22: “Water is Life: Youth Leading Change on World Water Day”.

In 2007, 69 cities across the United States passed resolutions acknowledging March 22 as World Water Day. Join those interested in promoting World Water Day in a variety of events across the country.

WaterAid America in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History present a panel discussion exploring the burden unsafe water and sanitation place on women, and the role women can play in water and sanitation development interventions. The discussion will be held on World Water Day, March 22.

Attention runners: join in an effort to raise awareness about the global water and sanitation challenge and help build a borehole well in the Azawak Valley, Niger – sign up for a Run for Water on March 22.

The Global Health Council will hold a briefing on Capitol Hill called “The Link Between Clean Water and Health.” The briefing will be on March 26 at 12:30 PM on Capitol Hill.

From the IAAF:

“It was somewhat inevitable the multi-talented Defar would prevail, and so it proved as she simply destroyed the field by winding up the pace from 400m out and unleashing her legendary kick-finish over the final lap.

And even Defar herself conceded in a post-race interview victory here at the Palau Velodromo Luis Puig was not the most testing of her career. “Today it was an easy race for me, because of that I didn’t have to run too fast,” she explained. “I feel that I’m ready for Beijing (Olympic Games) now.”

A lot happened in Accra, Ghana today. First, President Bush met with President Kufuor of Ghana and they held a joint press conference. They about talked about, among other things, the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Ghana has received a compact from MCA to build roads and improve infrastructure. MCA compacts go to well-governed countries, countries who fight corruption and invest in health and education for their citizens.

Then it was on to a lunch with Peace Corps workers in Ghana. Ghana was the first country in the world to welcome the Peace Corps. The first 52 Peace Corps workers arrived here on August 30, 1961. Since that time, more than 3,700 volunteers have served in this country (including two of my good friends Monica and Alex Smith – who met when they both served as Peace Corps workers in Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire and later married. Monica was a water and sanitation specialist and Alex educated people about HIV/AIDS).

The Ghanians have a special bond with Americans who serve in the Peace Corps and gave them a big welcome at lunch. The lunch guests, including President Bush and Bob Geldof, heard harrowing tales of Peace Corps life in rural Africa, including one woman who was bitten by a cobra and then discovered that the local clinics had run out of both poison anecdote and pain medication! (Don’t worry – she survived and told her tale to the President in person today.)

After lunch was my personal favorite part of the day: a tee ball game! We watched some Ghanian youngsters play ball – the Little Dragons vs. the Little Saints. I;m not sure my travelling companion, Sir Bob Geldof, understood the intracacies of the game, having grown up in Ireland, deprived of the World Series…but we all enjoyed it, nonetheless.

We also met Jordin Sparks, last year’s American Idol winner. Jordin was here with Malaria No More and visited Maamobi Polyclinic with the Presidential delegation.

In Ghana, one child out of every nine dies before his or her fifth birthday – many of these deaths are the result of preventable diseases.

At the Maamobi Polyclinic, Ghana and the United States are working together to eliminate two preventable causes of death in children: malnutrition and malaria.

PMI was launched in Ghana last December, and in its first year, the initiative will provide $17 million for malaria treatment and prevention. The US will also support Ghana’s National Malaria Control Program to provide more than a million mosquito nets for children and pregnant mothers’ beds.

We also saw a big market and a US sponsored trade hub in Ghana – more on that tomorrow!

-Taylor Royle

ONE sponsored and decorated the 18th hole of the Downtown Des Moines Skywalk Golf Tournament. There were almost 2,000 people participating in the world’s largest indoor golf tournament held in a 3-mile section of the skywalk system! When golfers got to the 18th hole, they were shooting for a “Hole in ONE” through giant ONE bands set up on the hole.

We spoke to golfers about the campaign, handed out stickers and literature, bands, and of course, “Hole in ONE” prizes! Two volunteers even got their picture printed in a local weekly newspaper. The caucuses may be over but ONE is still talking to Iowans about extreme global poverty and disease. We had a fun day and got lots of great visibility to the campaign at the same time!

-Libby Crimmings