This month, the ONE Campus Challenge is putting the spotlight on education — a powerful pathway out of poverty for children around the world. When children are able to go to school, they have a much better chance at leading productive, healthy lives and helping their families and communities escape the cycle of extreme poverty. Educated mothers, for example, are more likely to have smaller families, have their children immunized and send them to school. Education also equips people with skills to contribute to their economies and empowers them to hold their governments accountable.
Despite the far-reaching benefits of education, 75 million children remain out of school around the world. Most of these children are girls and most are living in hard-to-reach conflict zones or rural areas. In recent years, many governments have removed the biggest barrier to education by removing school fees. Thanks to efforts from African governments and savings from debt relief, 34 million more African children went to school for the first time between 1999 and 2006.
Yet other barriers still exist, such as the cost of books and uniforms, and the quality of education remains poor in many countries. Many of the children who do enroll in school do not complete a full course or do not graduate with even the most basic reading and math skills, often because their schools do not have enough teachers, books or facilities to provide a quality education.
In 2000, the world committed to ensure every child has a chance to complete primary school by 2015 through the Millennium Development Goals. While substantial progress has been made in opening school doors in the world’s poorest countries, the rate has not been fast enough. If the world is to achieve universal primary education by 2015, all children will need to be enrolled by 2010.
Recently, there has been renewed energy towards meeting these goals. During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama pledged that during his Presidency, the United States would make a contribution of $2 billion to a Global Education Fund. And in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, international football stars and FIFA have teamed up with 1Goal, a campaign to rally support for universal education.
We want to allow time for Liberian Literacy Foundation and their third-party partners to collect and count the books so we can announce the challenge winner the week of December 1 — before we announce the Power 100.
Am I going to have to pay to ship all these books?
Absolutely not! You’ll be contacted by someone from the Liberian Literacy Foundation or one of their partner organizations on or near your campus. It might be the Salvation Army, Model United Nations, or a host of other groups. But one way or another, they’re going to arrange a convenient pick-up or drop-off spot for your books. At worst, you might be asked to transport the books to another spot on campus — but if that’s a problem, they’ll work with you to figure something out.
My school already has/just had a book drive for another cause. What can I do?
A lot of schools may be in this position and yeah, it sucks. But competing causes are a reality in the kind of work we do, and it just means you have to get creative. For example, try to turn your problem into an opportunity by reaching out to an off-campus group you might not otherwise be in touch with. You can visit a nearbly high school to run your book drive, or reach out to faith communities.
For every answer you get right on GiveVaccines.org’s quiz, they’ll donate funds to purchase .01ml of vaccine through the GAVI Fund to help end disease worldwide.
Take Save the Children’s Mission: Pneumonia quiz and learn what it takes to fight pneumonia around the world.
Free Rice’s quiz will donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme for every answer you get right.
If you haven’t already, be sure to take the Clinton Foundation’s Global IQ test.
Thanks to Victoria Roman at George Washington University, Bethany Puthoff at The Ohio State University, and Nicole Santomauro at Boston University for finding some of these great partner organization quizzes!
Okay, yes, it is a little silly to dress your pet up in ONE gear. But this action is about branding, and putting a T-shirt on a dog or a ONE band around a snake — or, as in this picture from Raquel at the University of Texas in Austin, putting a ONE logo near your guinea pig — gets attention. Even if it does seem a little silly.
Eventually, we’re going to have a page on the OCC site where we feature all the ONE’d pets we’ve collected over the years. In the meantime, you can make your “ONE Your Pet” action more impactful by also sharing your photo on Facebook or Twitter.
I learned that in 1998 treatment was $12,000/person/year, but throughout the years it decreased to $7,000 then $2,000 on to $140. Now it costs <$90/person/year. That's roughly 133x MORE that we can help people as opposed to the original costs! Talk about moving forward and progressing in treatments!
- Drea Rewal, College of the Canyons
First of all, the overwhelming numbers of people that are affected by diseases that I am vaccinated for are amazing. Once again, I am overwhelmingly greatful that I have certain privileges that I honestly take for granted. Secondly, I was astonished of how far we have come regarding the prices for AIDS treatment. $12,000 to $98 a year per person is a beautiful accomplishment. There definitely is hope for all who suffer from this chronic virus, and the United States needs to continue to support the African communities that are distraught with AIDS and HIV deaths.
- Justin Stewart, Hillsborough Community College
I learned just how important vaccines are and how U.S. spending, research, and innovation is making a difference in the lives of real people around the world. I couldn’t help but cry tears of joy from seeing Avelile as a healthy young girl after seeing what AIDS had done to her. It was beautiful.
- Matt Sheffield, Indiana University Southeast
The private sector of development aid is booming like never seen before. This is illustrated by RED Campaign but especially with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This video gave me hope that Bill and Melinda are actually taking the time to oversee their foundation: that their money isn’t leading the way and that their optimism isn’t blinding them. While Africa is very much in need of public health changes, it is wrong and too optimistic to believe that all investments will and can help in the short and long run. However, in this video I saw how Bill and Melinda are watching their investments to ensure that there is its benefit is maximized. This not “phantom” aid. Obviously, Bill and Melinda are not giving this speech to ask for more money but asking for impatient fervor that will being about actions to improve the health in Africa. The videos of the individuals and families, especially the one about maternal health and poor conditions of child birth in Ethiopia, was a way to see the problems and solutions. Although I am very critical of discourse on this subject, I still believe it is incredibly important to connect any audience with a subject, as was the effort here. In summary, I learned many things from this video, made me think of somethings in a different way, but ignited a glimmer of hope in the collective actions of impatient optimists that can count me in.
- Sarah Adelman, University of California-Berkeley
Outreaching to high schools sound like a tough task that many of us do not want to to do because we have been there done that. And sometimes swore we would never go back. But the only way for us to continue OCC and to have more active campuses we must first make sure that every entering freshman in college is looking for a OCC chapter or maybe inspired enough to start one themselves.
The easiest way to go about doing this is during your breaks from school. Find a teacher that you had in high school and ask to come speak to they’re class about extreme poverty and preventable disease. Along with the importance of receiving a college education and why you choose your school as well.
That is exactly what I did on October 20, 2009. I spoke to a Advance Placement U.S. Government and Politics course (mostly seniors) for two 85 minute class periods at Blaine Senior High School, where I graduated from. It was a great experience for me to be able to reach out to students from home who really have not had much exposure to international politics. Many of these students were inspired by experiences that I have had by working with ONE, such as my attendance at the Power 100 Summit two years in a row. And most of all, by my once in a lifetime trip to Kenya.
By reaching out to these students we are able to help guide them to make consciences decisions about college. And to be as involved as much as possible and if they are interested in ending poverty look for ONE on there campus next fall!
-Steven Thai, Campus Outreach Ambassador for Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota
Thank you for joining the Liberian Books Project Challenge which presents an excellent tool for sustainably alleviating poverty by providing the basic literacy skills now desperately needed by more than 1.8 million people.
In 2008, through the direct action of members of ONE and its partners, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledged receiving more than 48,000 emails in support of debt relief in Liberia; and the significant role this email campaign played in securing pledges of support for Liberia from its member states. This action put Liberia on the long hard road to investing in its people through projects and programs to alleviate poverty.
It therefore comes as a natural next step for the Liberian Literacy Foundation to be partnering with the members of ONE to carryout just such a sustainable education project through the Liberian Books Project Challenge.
Under the project, the programs of recycling books, building libraries, providing educational resources, and delivering renewable energy to Liberia are synchronized into one cohesive effort of sustainable support for Liberian literacy centers. The project’s goals are achieved by partnering with community organizations, colleges and universities to collect used books, which are sold to build 1,200 literacy centers in Liberia and educate 1.8 million people.
While it’s good to be the biggest bear in the woods, we at Missouri State ONE believe it’s even better to combat poverty. So, here are some tips Campus Leader Ann Maryniak and I put together to help you survive a bear attack and, if you’re lucky, perhaps even beat the bear:
No idea is too far-fetched.
Don’t count any idea out because it’s too radical, too out there, too whatever. As I’ve been repeatedly mocked for saying, “no too is too ‘too’ for ONE.” Obviously, if it proves itself unattainable or otherwise counterproductive, cut your losses and move on. But don’t give up on any idea because it sounds crazy. Those are often the good ones. Example:
“What if we…”
“Nah, that’s stupid. Nobody is gonna care about AIDS because of power rangers…”
“Wait… that’s just crazy enough to work…”
Find the relevant people.
There are people on-campus who can help you make your ONE chapter bigger and better. For petitions, start with your Greek row if you like. Just email their presidents, let them know who you are and what you want to talk about. Bring the paper petitions with you. Watch as petitions come flowing in AND students get excited about what you’re doing.
Be visible.
MoState ONE did ten tables from August 23rd until October 16th. Not counting participation in the U2-related events and the speaking events and the Stand Up events and everything else. Just info tables… ten of them. Each table lasted around four hours, and we got around 75 signup every time. Very few people just signed one petition, so that meant anywhere from 100 to 225 petition signatures per table. That’s 5,000 points. BIIIIG payoff. Keep t-shirts, hats, bands, banners, flyers, and anything else you can visible. Eventually, even the people who didn’t start off interested will get curious. From there, it’s only a matter of whether or not they’re pro-HIV/AIDS.
Bring in Backup.
You are not the only group of students with a good cause. Bring in STAND, bring in United Students for Fair Trade, bring in Habitat for Humanity or Amnesty International. We might be ONE, but we don’t act alone. Get out there and work with other organizations. Get creative. It keeps people guessing, which keeps them interested.
Utilize your Weapons.
Possibly the best advice on this list for beating actual bears, this is the single most effective thing MSU ONE Bears have done this year. People, especially college students, are often very excited to put their voices to use, and nothing hurts your organization more than having twenty people hanging around feeling unused. The philanthropy organizations will love you for recruiting all their new people for them, but the Campus Challenge will not reward you.
This month’s challenge is unlike anything we’ve ever done before. Now through November 20, we need you to collect used books — a few of your own laying around the house, or run a campus-wide book drive — for the Liberian Literacy Foundation.
Maisie, Emily, ONE member Tiffany and our friend Victor Helb from the Liberian Literacy Foundation explain the challenge in this short-but-sweet video:
The Liberian Literacy Foundation collects books to either use as learning materials or sell to raise money for building environmentally-responsible literacy institutions. Literacy is a key tool in the fight against global poverty and disease — it can help promote better health, spur economic growth and empower citizens to hold their governments accountable. Every single book you donate will help families and communities in Liberia to take one more step in escaping the cycle of extreme poverty.
Learn more about the November challenge, including the points and prizes, here.
Anyone who’s been keeping an eye on the OCC standing over the past few weeks is probably not too shocked to see that the Missouri State Bears are walking away victorious from OCC’s October Recruitment Challenge. ONE at MSU recruited an amazing 780 new members in the month of October alone, and for all their hard work, ONE is awarding them with 20,000 points, a prize pack of FEED bags and ONE gear, and a conference call with the FEED Foundation’s co-founders, Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson and their members.
Also, a huge congrats goes out to the University of Central Florida with 566 new recruits and OCC first-timers Philander-Smith College with 466 new members, who will receive 10,000 and 5,000 points, respectively for their 2nd and 3rd place finishes in October.
The OCC Blog is a daily log of the ONE Campus Challenge, a friendly competition to determine which university's student body has the most effective global poverty-fighting campaign. The site is operated by ONE staff, Campus Outreach Ambassadors (COAs), and Campus Leaders.
The content of each post represents the views of that post's author and does not necessarily reflect the views of ONE. ONE does not support or oppose any candidate for elected office, and any post expressing support or opposition for a candidate is not endorsed by ONE.
Why is the deadline November 20?
Outreaching to high schools sound like a tough task that many of us do not want to to do because we have been there done that. And sometimes swore we would never go back. But the only way for us to continue OCC and to have more active campuses we must first make sure that every entering freshman in college is looking for a OCC chapter or maybe inspired enough to start one themselves.
While it’s good to be the biggest bear in the woods, we at Missouri State ONE believe it’s even better to combat poverty. So, here are some tips Campus Leader Ann Maryniak and I put together to help you survive a bear attack and, if you’re lucky, perhaps even beat the bear:
