ONE Perspective on Latin America

September 25th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

With the United Nations Special Summit on the Millennium Development Goals going on this week, it may not be a surprise to say a group of world leaders were gathered in New York City. Yet, they were miles from the UN headquarters. In fact, these heads of state gathered at The Earth Institute at Columbia University for a forum on The Children of Latin America: A Future Without Poverty.

Those in attendance from the Latin American nations were Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, President, United Mexican States, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President, Argentine Republic, Fernando Armindo Lugo Méndez, President, Republic of Paraguay, Elias Antonio Saca González, President, Republic of El Salvador, and Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino, President, Republic of Panama.

At that, Bono isn’t the only rock-star philanthropist taking aim at eliminating poverty. Shakira and Alejandro Sanz graced the floor with their presence along with Jeffrey Sachs, bestselling author and director of the Earth Institute, and activists from the ALAS and Inter-American Development Bank.

So naturally, when student leaders at Sacred Heart University, Emerson College, and Seton Hall University found out about it, we knew we had to be there to represent ONE. After convincing our professors to let us skip class, we traveled from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey with ONE bracelets and shirts proudly displayed.

While we loved seeing Shakira and Jeff Sachs, the truly meaningful words spoken at the forum were those of the world leaders. From stating how they themselves focus on the MDG’s to more personal stories, such as the state of emergency in Paraguay to the sacrifice of “beautiful buildings to have happier citizens”, much was shared, and likewise much was learned. Truly, other world leaders aren’t turning a deaf ear to these problems.

Mr. Sachs joked between Shakira’s monologue that “Like Wyclef Jean said, she makes a man want to speak Spanish.” Well, even if you don’t speak Spanish, you can watch a bilingual archived webcast of the thrilling forum available online!

We’ve got Menendez on our side

March 18th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

On Monday the luck of the Irish was with the ONE Campaign. New Jersey members of ONE and our partner organization CARE met with Senator Robert Menendez to discuss his support for several anti-poverty bills going through Congress. For my part in the meeting I thanked the Senator for co-sponsoring and voting for the Biden/Lugar amendment to the FY09 International Affairs Budget which, as many of you might know, restored $4.1 billion dollars to the bill that will help fight malnutrition, poor sanitation, and illiteracy.

Yet we assured the Senator that as his constituents we were not satisfied with the fact that many essential commitments such as funding for maternal and child health programs attracted fewer resources than were justified. To our delight Senator Menendez not only matched our enthusiasm about these issues, but raised us to engage and education more citizens in the vast inequality that exists in our world. Only then, he stated, will all members of the New Jersey delegation to Congress be commanded by voters to take on the challenges of extreme poverty and disease.

Well Senator, we are much closer to that reality than you might think as New Jersey has 10 college campuses engaged in the Campus Challenge, several community based ONE groups, and an ever growing network of voters ready to call and write you to take action against AIDS, hunger, education, and all ONE issues.

Call or write your senator today to thank them for their support of the International Affairs Budget or stress why further funding is needed (report it here).

Yea I hang out with MTV’s Sway

February 9th, 2008 at 12:51 pm

So where were you last Saturday? Perhaps just chillin in your dorm room and getting excited for Super Tuesday by watching MTV’s ‘Presidential Super Dialogue.’ Well Lucie and I from ONE Seton Hall University WERE THERE!!! Thanks to a hook up from the ONE office, we represented ONE at this event sponsored by MTV, Myspace and the Associated Press which brought together four presidental hopefuls (via satellite) to let young voters tell them whats on their minds.

Unfortunately Lucie and I weren’t able to ask Obama, Hilary, Huckabee, or Ron Paul any questions or even wear our ONE shirt, but we did load our arms up with ONE wristband and made sure that a majority of the audience got a band. The highlight had to be hearing both Obama and Clinton mention that HIV/AIDS would be one the biggest challenges that the would take action on. ONE by ONE we are changing the debate in this country and we can ensure that whoever is going to the White House come November, that they are ready to tackle the issues of extreme poverty and disease.

What’s an ROA Part III: Ross

December 5th, 2007 at 4:25 pm

Part 3 in our “What’s an ROA” series is Ross Joy, who covers some of the North East and Mid Atlantic States

Hola. My name is Ross Joy and I am the ROA for New York, New Jersey, and Delaware. I attend Seton Hall University in South Orange, NJ which is three blocks outside of Newark. I am majoring in International Relations and Diplomacy, Spanish, and hopefully a minor in Urban Studies. I am 98% sure that I am going to the Peace Corp after school. Dream job is to work for the UN Development Programme or Population Fund dealing with slum development.

I am originally from a small farming town south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Coming from an extend farming family and an active 4-H member, I have always been interested in agriculture and social justice issues. Reading letters from my parents’ college friends that have become missionaries in Ethiopia and in high school reading Jeffrey Sachs’ “The End of Poverty” and Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” (must reads), I came to realize that ending poverty is a call for humanity and myself.

Otherwise I enjoy long walks on the beach, Merengue dancing, the movie Garden State, photography, Bollywood music, the Brooklyn Bridge, and running, one day the Boston Marathon. I am very excited for winter break because I am going to be visiting family that lives in Santo Domingo, DR. Good luck with exams and remember that we are the engines for social change.

ARRRRGH

December 4th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

I just felt like ripping the presidential call-in sheets that I had in my hand into a billion pieces. For the third time in the past week I was hearing from a university staff that our Action Against AIDS table was being moved. ONE Seton Hall had planned a table in coordination with World AIDS Day in our university center for last Friday, but the person who was supposed to fill out the paper work wasn’t in. Then over the weekend all the spaces on Monday became filled, so we were push back one more day. But my campus’s bureaucracy had one more trick up its sleeve, today at 10:30 we were moved from the high traffic space next to the cafe we were promised to the dust settling Living Room, which is really used only by a handful of commuters. So much red tape just to hand out some red ribbons.

However despite Fate’s best efforts our event turned out to be a great success. Word spread through classes (thank you facebook), and every hour there was a good size crowd signing our support banner, pinning each other with ribbons, and phoning into Obama and Thompson to ask them to take a stance on AIDS. Never mind the fire drill that lasted 45mins in the middle of our time slot (standing in 28 degree weather makes you stronger to fight poverty). I am letting out another ARRRGH cause we are the Seton Hall Pirates and we are ONE. Watch out top 10, we are gunning for you.