Last year I attended the Power 100 Summit in January, where we were told a bit about BeadforLife and the story behind the organization.  Each of us were given a bracelet in our gift bag, and we were told that the beads on it were made out of recycled paper by women in Uganda who had been living on less than $1 a day before becoming employed with BeadforLife.  I was very intrigued by this organization, and desired to put an event together for it all last year, but the timing just never worked out.  This year I was determined to see it through!

We first contacted BeadforLife and ordered our beads (there are three different size packages, I opted for the medium sized package); the organization pays for all shipping and handling costs to encourage volunteers to sell, they even sent me a pre-paid shipping label to ship the leftover beads back!  We then held a meeting to discuss our potential outreach areas and got to work on advertising.  We made flyers and hung them up around the school and I contacted our school paper, the Indiana Daily Student (IDS), to let them know about our event. We then had to organize a schedule of who could work when in order to ensure that the table was manned at all times, which did actually take a bit of work because of so many last-minute changes that came up! Our sale went from Tuesday, October 7th through Friday, October 10 from 12:30 to 6pm every day.  The next step was to figure out supplies, dividing up who would bring what to the sale.  We had to improvise and use baskets and colorful drinking cups to string the beads around, but the cups were actually a huge hit, and we received many compliments on how well they went with the beads! Just goes to show you that a little improvisation goes a long way

The IDS was very intrigued and sent a reporter over to the booth the first day of the sale to learn more.  We told her not only about BeadforLife, but also about what ONE stands for and why this event was so important.  When we opened the paper the next day, there was a half-page article about our event on page 2!  We were all stoked, and our sales from that second day more than doubled as a result of the article.  I sent the writer an email the next day, thanking her for taking the time to investigate our sale and give us publicity; the media is such a powerful tool, and it’s important to maintain a good relationship with its team members!

Overall, we raised over $1600 to benefit these Ugandan women, which is more than we had ever expected!  This money goes back to them and provides them a way to obtain food and clothing, purchase school supplies, and pay for education costs, medications, and ultimately give them hope for a better future.  Most of the women employed are either HIV positive or are refugees of civil war, living in poverty with their families.  It’s such a blessing that BeadforLife was started and has provided them with an income to give them all a better quality of life!

To find out more on BeadforLife and to learn how to host your own sale, visit www.beadforlife.org and let them know your interest!

-Jessica Beckner, Indiana University:  jlbeckne@indiana.edu

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!

Those involved with ONE stand for eliminating extreme poverty and disease worldwide. Why don’t we all look and see what POSITIVE things we can say about the schools in the top ten? Try not to compliment your own school – we already know that YOU love their project.

For one, I LOVED George Washington’s use of the “Fresh African Water” in their final video submission. It was awesome – definitly got the message across. Western Kentucky’s breakdown of all the Millennium Development Goals was incredible as well – super effective. Hofstra is helping to educate children in Kenya – I’d say that’s a worthy cause. Campellsville, Kansas State, and Brandeis all had incredible awareness events as well. Wilmington College’s aspects of planning for their project in itself is daunting.

Post something here so long as you’ve got a positive thing to say. Anyone think of a project that no one did? Anything super creative? Let’s keep it going with some positive reinforcement here…

First and foremost, since the competition is no longer about how many points you can accrue, the points page has been renamed Take Action.  You’ll find the old familiar list of actions here, and you are still able to report your actions like you used to. And please do keep reporting! We love having your stories and photos to help demonstrate just how large and effective the anti-poverty movement is. 

Second, we’ve swapped the link to the standings page with a link pointing right here, the OCC Blog.  Now that the round of points is over, the standings page doesn’t tell the story of what’s going on campuses around the country nearly as well as the OCC Blog. 

I hope you enjoy the changes, let me know if there is anything else you would like to see happen. 

Check out pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericlabrat/sets/72157603851518922/

Read the following email for more information, and good luck!!!

ABC News would like to alert you and your volunteers/members of an opportunity for registered Democrats to participate in an upcoming segment. In fairness to both parties, We are reaching out to multiple student chapters supporting all the candidates.

Gearing up for “Super Tuesday” on February 5th, we want to hear from your members about which candidate they support & why.

How does this candidate represent the future of the party? Why do you think they are deserving of your vote? Tell us which presidential hopeful you endorse and why.

Submit your video response for the opportunity to appear on ABC News platforms.

DEADLINE: Monday, February 4, 2008.

HOW TO UPLOAD VIDEOS:

1) Using a digital camera (we don’t request any fancy equipment) record the 15-30 second video clip.

Do you own a digital camera? Most cameras have a video function that allows the user to record 30 second-1 minute videos. Once recorded, you can upload the video to your computer the same way you’d view digital snapshots!

2) Upload it to the website & VOILA!
http://ugv.abcnews.go.com/Player.aspx?id=1057823

Click on red “RESPOND NOW” Button.

Here is a sample of how your videos could be included in ABC News
programming:

Iowa Caucus: Which Candidate Do You Support?
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4086713

Okay, so the last debates before Super Tuesday are being held in the next two days on CNN. January 30th is the Republican Debate and January 31st is the Democratic Debate. And, since we are the coolest (i.e. most technologically advanced) generation, we get to submit questions to the candidates through an online tool on Politico.com.

Well, I just looked through the 626 questions in the “foreign policy (not Iraq)” category on the Democratic side and, to my dismay, only found 4 questions that relate to global poverty!!

So I know this is a last minute blog, but they are still accepting questions for the democratic debate. I really encourage you all to get on there and either write a question about extreme poverty or vote for one! It literally takes a minute, and I think it’s a great way to show the candidates that we care about this issue and perhaps get the issue talked about on a nationally televised debate!

Oh, and if you need an extra push: you can snag some OCC points for each question under the “make your own action” category!

Over the week following World AIDS Day, Princeton students tabled in their campus center asking students to sign socks. The campaign was part of a larger action to fix the President’s Emergency Relief Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPRFAR) bill which will soon be up for restructuring and reapproval. Rather than take the normal approach to writing letters to Congress, the students joined a campaign to “Air-Out-Your-Dirty-Laundry” on PEPFAR to sign personalized socks outlining which part of the bill you find “stinky.” The action was wildly successful and we quickly ran out of socks after 142 socks had been signed. The socks will now be brought to DC for Congressional visits to make sure all the students’ voices get heard (or their dirty socks get smelt).

“If we are serious about ending extreme hunger and poverty around the world, we must be serious about transforming agriculture for small farmers, most of whom are women,” Gates said. He wasn’t the only one that had something to say either; UN Leader Ban-Ki Moon focused on issues ranging from malaria to climate change, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown asked the World Bank to also focus efforts on climate change. Both old and new additions to Product (RED) were in attendance; Bono and Michael Dell of Dell Computers had more than enough to talk about.

It’s pretty cool to see some of our favorite leaders doing good around the world; I don’t know about you guys, but it definitly fills me up with a lot of pride and hope to be involved with something as effective and meaningful as the ONE Campaign. Huzzah!

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/01/25/davos.main/index.html