Yesterday, Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama promoted national service at home and abroad in an effort to renew American diplomacy, asking individual citizens to stand up and “change history’s course.”
He addressed an audience at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs:
“I am running for President, right now, because of what Dr. King called the fierce urgency of now…Our country faces determined enemies abroad, and definitive challenges at home. But I have no doubt that in the face of these odds, people who love their country can change it. That is why I am running for President. That is why I’m determined to reach out - not just to Democrats, but to Independents and Republicans who want to move in a new direction. And that is why I won’t just ask for your vote as a candidate - I will ask for your service and your active citizenship when I am President of the United States.”
His plan on voluntary public service, according to the campaign website, includes, among other things:
Expanding Americorps from 75,000 to 250,000 and Peace Corps to 16,000 slots.
Extending opportunities for professionals and senior citizens to serve overseas.
A $4000 American Opportunity Tax credit for college students who volunteer 100 hours of community service.
Creating an agency within the Corporation for National and Community Service to promote the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations.
The senator noted:
“This will not be a call issued in one speech or one program - this will be a central cause of my presidency.”
ONE and Keep a Child Alive are hosting screenings of We Are Together, a multi-award winning documentary that follows a children’s singing choir from Agape orphanage in South Africa:
Life has not been easy for 12-year old Slindile, her siblings and her friends at the Agape Orphanage in South Africa, where most of the children have lost their parents to AIDS. But they are still kids and teenagers, bashful around boys, squabbling with each other. And when they lift their voices in song, something extraordinary happens.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:46 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
Ashley Judd visited Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an Ambassador with Population Services International’s Five and Alive program in late April. She wrote her experiences in a personal journal. Below is an except from her last day.
Day Six:
At a heaving market place I visited a tiny box that is PUR’s point of sale. Having set up in neighborhoods, we found folks at home have no money, but when they go to the market, they obviously have a little in their pockets for the grocery list. So, we set up a kiosk, and today I was doing a public demonstration of PUR for anyone who happened to be passing by. I love this sort of thing, being on the street, hanging out, trading witticisms and having fun, getting people involved.
In front of the kiosk I stood with a wooden stool (which would be a “primitive” collectable in the U.S.) and a big pale of nasty river water, laden with brown muck and filth. Using a fantastic, enormous wooden spoon, I sprinkled in PUR and began to stir. A great crowd was already gathered, and we hollered questions and answers back and forth about water: where do you get your water, do you get diarrhea, wait til you see PUR, sold here for .50, and how it makes even river water safe! The crowd grew.
Five & Alive, a program of Population Services International (PSI), provides children and their families with the education, products, services and care needed to improve health and save lives in more than 30 countries. www.fiveandalive.org
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm | posted by Weldon Kennedy
Great news coming from Germany today as the government agreed to increase poverty-focused development assistance by €800 Million ($1.27 billion) in the 2009 budget. This will crease the Development Ministry’s budget by more than 12% and marks the third year running that Germany has substantially increased aid.
The budget now heads to parliament for a decision in November.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
CNN will highlight the work of UNICEF in a special program to air this coming Sunday, July 6, 2008 at 8PM and repeated at 11PM EST. This is an excellent program and relates to the CNN Survival Project. You can learn more here.
If you are traveling this weekend, set your recorders to record the program. If we hear about a downloadable podcast, we will feature it in our next newsletter. Our colleagues at UNICEF deserve a lot of praise for their continued work around the globe helping children and their families.
Thank you.
-Andrew E. Barrier, Ph.D., Executive Director, US Coalition for Child Survival (USCCS)
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:49 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
My name is Willard Musarurwa. I am a craftsmaker from Cape Town, and want to tell you about how Aid to Artisans has changed my life. You can watch my video , “How Does Aid to Artisans Make a Difference?” below.
Before meeting Aid to Artisans, I was sinking into deep trenches of desperation. Time was going by and I realized I had to make a living, sooner rather than later. I decided to be creative. When we were teenagers, we used to make cars, bicycles and animals for fun out of wire. This time, I did it to sell to tourists who come to Cape Town. It became my job although the income I generated was not sufficient, constant or regular, so I still couldn’t prepare a budget. I had to grow.
I decided to approach the Cape Crafts and Design Institute for assistance and luckily, I met Aid to Artisans and Stephen Burks, an American Designer. We designed a wire table. It took us 2 years to develop until it was accepted for an exhibition. The first time it hit the market, the product was hand picked by a U.S. distributor, Artecnica. I was able to use the income to start my own business, Feeling African, which has created jobs for 9 people and myself.
I will never forget when my tables were chosen as best product in South Africa at Design Indaba 2006, when they appeared in 20 South African magazines and twice in The New York Times, in Feb. 2007 and Feb. 2008. A short film was made for my product. We now have a studio to work in.
We still have a long way to go to make more products and to be more established with different business people and organizations. But I saw my dream come true and I will keep trying even harder.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
Moments ago President Bush appeared at the Rose Garden to speak about his upcoming trip to the G8 Summit in Japan. President Bush spoke of the G8 leaders’ 2005 promises to double development aid by 2010, and said one of his major agenda items at the summit will be to rally our partners to “make commitments and meet commitments.”
You can video clips of his remarks below. I also transcribed a portion of his speech. I hope to post the full transcript up here soon.
“Now we need to show the world that the G8 can be accountable for its promises and deliver results…
Accountability is really important when it comes to our work on the continent of Africa. 2005 G8 leaders promised to double development assistance to Africa by 2010. America’s on track to meet our commitments, and in Japan I’ll urge other nations to fulfill their commitments as well.
We must also fulfill our committments in the battle against HIV/AIDS and malaria. I’ve asked Congress to reauthorize and expand the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, doubling our funding for this vital effort. It’s very important that Congress reauthorize this plan, but in the meantime we’re fulfilling our promises that we made, not only to the G8 but more importantly to the people on the continent of Africa.
It’s important that over the next 5 years, we support antiretroviral treatment for approximately 2.5 million people. That we prevent 12 million new AIDS infections and that we care for 12 million people also effected by HIV/AIDS including 5 million orphans and vulnerable children.
Last year the G8 agreed to meet those commitments. They agreed to match. They also agreed to help us reduce malaria in effected-countries by half. I hope that these countries understand the great promise and hope that comes when [clip cuts off here.] So one of my really important agenda items is gonna rally our partners to make commitments and meet commitments.”
President Bush talked went on to talk about healthcare workers, neglected tropical diseases, the food crisis, agriculture and trade.
At past G8 summits, we’ve seen a number of landmark commitments on health – from treating and preventing infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS to improving health systems to eradicating Polio. In fact, it was at the G8 Summit in Okinawa, Japan (the last time Japan hosted the G8) that the initial seeds were sown for the Global Fund. The Global Fund has now saved more than 2 million lives by providing treatment and prevention for AIDS, TB and Malaria.
But eight years after the Global Fund’s inception, the fight against these infectious diseases, and delivering essential health services more generally, is being severely hampered by weak health systems and a critical shortage of health professionals. With this in mind, we’re asking the G8 to deliver a strategy for improving overall health conditions while continuing to vigorously fight infectious diseases. Here are ONE’s three top-line health asks:
1. Develop a time-bound action plan for delivering $100 billion for health: At the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, non-US G8 members promised to provide $30 billion for AIDS, TB, malaria and health systems in order to match the United States’ $30 billion, five-year AIDS, TB and malaria program. That program, known as PEPFAR, will now be authorized at $50 billion over five years. Non-US G8 donors should build on the original spirit of the Heiligendamm commitment by providing a $50 billion match over the same five-year period, and improving the quality of these investments over the same time frame.
By the end of the Japanese G8 presidency, the G8 should provide a donor-by-donor timetable for delivering on this health commitment.
2. Set a numeric target for filling Africa’s critical shortage of health workers: G8 leaders should agree to funding an increase of at least 1.5 million additional health workers in Africa by 2015, with an interim target of at least 600,000 additional health workers by 2012.
According to the WHO, meeting major health-related MDGs, such as universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, is “very unlikely” unless countries reach a minimum threshold of 2.3 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 1,000 population. In Sub Saharan Africa, this ratio translates to roughly 1.5 million additional health workers, including more than 800,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives.
3. Coordinate new and existing donor resources for health systems and health workers around national health sector plans. The G8 should agree to support the development of, and effective coordination of aid around, national health sector strategies. Assistance should be immediately scale-up in countries that already have rigorous national plans and a process should be developed to ensure all poor countries have the resources to complete donor-ready health sector investment plans.
Ashley Judd visited Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an Ambassador with Population Services International’s Five and Alive program in late April. She wrote her experiences in a personal journal. Below is an except from one her last days on the trip.
Day Six:
One day, PSI staff who go door to door visiting people to offer education about family planning arrived at their household while Victor was out. Therese listened keenly, told her husband what she had heard, and they went to the clinic I had visited earlier to learn more. Characteristically, Victor was concerned the birth control might have some hidden, long term detrimental affect on Therese’s health: he had already seen her suffer so much. Eventually learning from medical staff it was safe, they’ve been using an injectable birth control every 3 months.
We sat in the shade of a fine tree as this sweet couple shared their success with family planning.
Five & Alive, a program of Population Services International (PSI), provides children and their families with the education, products, services and care needed to improve health and save lives in more than 30 countries. www.fiveandalive.org
July 1st, 2008 at 12:20 pm | posted by Ben Hubbard
This week we’re highlighting some of the key development issues we’re hoping to see addressed during next week’s G8 summit in Japan.
Yesterday, Josh Lozman put the spotlight on overall development financing and Monday’s troubling Financial Times article that indicated G8 negotiators are considering omitting a reiteration of their 2005 promise to increase aid to Africa by $25 billion by 2010. Watering down that commitment would be a serious breach of the G8’s credibility and accountability and we’re fighting to make sure it doesn’t happen.
But it’s important that we also focus on what’s needed to achieve the aid target. Big numbers, after all, are easier for the G8 to hide behind. Ultimately meeting the ambitious $25b goal requires scaling up financing for effective programs in specific sectors, such as health, education, agriculture and water and sanitation. Previous G8 commitments to these sectors are more than enough to meet the $25b goal. That’s why we’re asking G8 negotiators to get devilish in the details – we want to see an annual action plan for delivery on these promises.
In my next post, I’ll focus on what we’re asking the G8 to do this year on health.
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