On Friday, February 1st, I sent out an email to all the ONE members in Ohio. This message was a call to action urging members to write letters to Senator George Voinovich asking him to co-sponsor the Global Child Survival Act. Wondering if my hope for one hundred responses was perhaps unrealistic, I was blown away when the numbers came flooding in – 1,354 ONE members in the state of Ohio answered the call!

Today I was honored to represent the Buckeye State in the first letter drop for ONE in Ohio. I, along with ONE Field Organizer Katie Andrews, met briefly with Senator Voinovich’s State Communications Liaison Khisha Fallon to discuss the importance of child and maternal health.

As a ONE member, I’ve come to know that every year 10 million children die before their fifth birthday – that’s one every three seconds – nearly all of them from preventable or treatable diseases, like diarrhea, pneumonia and measles. Worldwide, more than 500,000 mothers die each year from complications during child birth. With this action today and actions just like this from ONE members across the nation, the prognosis for mothers and young children in the developing world can be a much more hopeful one.

Thank you ONE members in Ohio for helping me take a stand for children and mothers around the world.

-Chris Cooper, ONE Member (Chillicothe, OH)

On Thursay, ONE’s Marine Michael Castaldo asked NH ONE members to write letters encouraging NH Senator John E. Sununu to sign on to the Global Child Survival Act. In just one day, more than 250 Granite Staters took action.

The next day, we went to Senator Sununu’s Office to present his staff with the letters. On our way, we stopped in unannounced at NH Senator Judd Gregg’s office to request a meeting about the upcoming US budget and while we were there we ran into a staffer who was already wearing his ONE band!

When we arrived at Senator Sununu’s office, I immediately noticed the award that “UNH for ONE” presented Senator Sununu for his leadership in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa. Many ONE members know Senator Sununu best for his support of the Jubilee Act, his work to fully fund the Millennium Challenge Corporation, his efforts to help restore and secure more than a billion life-saving funds in the 2007 CR, and his recent World AIDS Day speech at Dartmouth.

After thanking Senator Sununu’s staff for all of his work on behalf of the world’s poorest people, we presented the letters on the Global Child Survival Act to his State Director Pam Kocher, who is also a NH ONE Vote ‘08 Ambassador.

Strong leaders on both side of the aisle are taking bold steps to make sure that our country is doing all we can to save the lives of millions of people in developing places around the world, and to make extreme – stupid poverty…history!

-Matthew Bartlett

ONE members from Birmingham met with Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL-7) on Tuesday to discuss important legislation that would move the U.S. closer to our commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

The seven ONE activists took turns briefing Rep. Davis on three pieces of legislation: The Education for All Act, The Global Child Survival Act, and the GROWTH Act. (Rep. Davis had previously signed on as a co-sponsor for the Jubilee Act!)

Rep. Davis, commented that this legislation builds a “case for American values.” He said that there is a perception “that America is no longer interested in marginalized people around the world.”

Davis’ district consists of some of the poorest counties in the US where as much as 30-40% of the population live below the poverty line. Davis says he is sometimes asked how he can spend time on global poverty issues when the needs at home are so great. He responded that “in a strong country, addressing poverty abroad and poverty at home should not be an either/or issue but a both/and issue”

We also took the opportunity to talk with Rep. Davis about ONE Vote 08. Davis, a Harvard Law School classmate and supporter of presidential candidate Barack Obama, has been campaigning widely for Senator Obama, both on the campaign trail and on national cable news programs.

Our meeting ended with the requisite “white ONE banding” and group picture. Oh! And Rep. Davis said that he “would be happy to co-sponsor” these three important pieces of legislation. We hit the TRIFECTA!

-Elaine VanCleave, Birmingham, AL, ONE leader

[Pictured above: Mildred Sanford, Judy Donaldson, Betty Likis, Rep. Artur Davis, Nick Foster, Elaine VanCleave, Jeannette Bell, and Kelli Hepner]