Last Monday, we (The International Rescue Committee’s Washington DC resettlement office) welcomed our most recent arrival – a Bhutanese family of seven. Jet-lagged, dehydrated, but enthusiastic, the family flew into Reagan National Airport and were welcomed by an IRC case manager. This particular Bhutanese family has been in a refugee camp for 17 years. They are part of a new wave of Bhutanese refugees who are welcomed by the U.S. Government and resettled by NGO’s like the IRC.

As a resettlement agency, IRC welcomes families, finds housing, provides a first meal, offers cash assistance, helps with enrollment in English classes, and assists in the search for employment. Currently, the DC office resettles refugees from Burma, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, and many other countries around the world.

Several ONE Campaign employees volunteered their personal time to host a drive for the Bhutanese family collecting furniture, food, clothing and household goods, so that the new home was ready for the family’s arrival. These employees’ involvement will not end here - they will help mentor the family as they begin their path towards independence and build their lives in Washington, DC.

If you are interested in volunteering with IRC, go here to to see if there’s a resettlement office in your area and here to learn how you or your organization can get involved.

-Kate Evans, Volunteer Coordinator for IRC’s Washington, DC Resettlement Office

This Monday the 4th, I began our August “crunch” to meet with our respective Congressman and Senators while they are in recess. Many members use the August congressional recess to host town halls and forums in their communities - so check out their websites for a schedule to meet up with yours. If you can go, wear a ONE T-shirt and use your voice for the world’s poorest people. These events are free and open to the public so it is a great opportunity to let your representatives in Congress know that you care about fighting extreme poverty and global disease.

My first town hall meeting of this August’s recess was with Congressman Christopher Carney. About 40-50 of his constituents came and spoke directly with the congressman about issues that are important to them.

After the meeting concluded, I was able to meet with Congressman Carney and his Chief of Staff. I made sure to thank him for his support of the AIDS, TB and Malaria funding bill PEPFAR and spoke with him about ONE Vote ‘08. Lastly, I mentioned a few of the amazing things our volunteers have accomplished in Pennsylvania and asked if it might be possible to set up a meeting with him and ONE members from his district.

All in all, this was a great experience and fantastic exposure for ONE and the world’s bottom billion people.

-Brian Sweeney, Pennsylvania ONE Field Organizer

On Sunday Miami ONE Members in Miami, met with Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen to thank her for her leadership in the passage of PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS RElief) and for her continued support of policies to fight global disease and extreme poverty around the world.

The congresswoman expressed tremendous appreciation for our efforts on the ground and commended ONE and our partner organizations for working together to engage the community and raise awareness about extreme poverty. She was especially happy to hear

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Here at ONE Headquarters, it’s easy to feel removed from the individuals and communities that we advocate for around the world. That’s why it was particularly exciting to meet four visitors from Malawi who came to speak with us recently about the challenges newborns face in their country: Grace Tutiwe Ngoto and her daughter Tuntufye, nurse and midwife Hilalpi Kunkeyani and Reuben Ligowe, Program Officer for Save the Children in Malawi’s Newborn Health program.

Malawi, a nation of 12 million people, is situated on the eastern side of Africa surrounded by Tanzania, Mozambique and Zambia. Their poverty statistics are hard to imagine. The per capita gross national income is about $170 and the amount of government spending on health per capita is $5!

In Malawi, 73,200 children under age five die every year. Twenty percent of these are newborns less than one month that succumb to infection, complications at birth or challenges associated with low birth rates. Impressively, Malawi has managed to reduce their under-5 mortality rate by 30% over the last five years with limited resources. Unfortunately, death rates among newborns have declined at a slower pace.

This being said, while low birth rate used to be considered a death sentence, organizations like Save the Children have had great success with interventions such as kangaroo mother care (KMC). KMC encourages mothers to maintain “skin-to-skin” contact with their low-weight newborns, much like a kangaroo mother keeps her baby in her pouch. This way, any change in the baby’s body temperature is immediately corrected by the mother’s warmth and the baby is exclusively breastfed.

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Dearest ONE Blog readers,

As David noted on Friday, ONE’s offices are closed this week and, as such, posting will be somewhat lighter for the next few days. (But post we will. Note the adorable photos in Margaret’s next entry.)

-Virginia Simmons

All of us here at ONE are about to escape DC’s infamous August heat and take a much-needed week of vacation. But before we go, I wanted to share a few concluding thoughts about our visit to Rwanda.

I think our delegation returned from Rwanda inspired by what can be achieved and encouraged by America’s role in supporting that country’s groundbreaking efforts. We were fortunate to have such a diverse and distinguished group together for such a concentrated period of time - a rare thing these days. The group chemistry was great and we generated a number of valuable discussions.

Here are a few of the important ideas I think our delegation took away from their experience in Rwanda:

First and foremost, we were able to witness firsthand the remarkable resilience of the African spirit and the unwavering commitment to creating a better future. Here in the U.S., we are accustomed to reading about African failures-famine, conflict and, yes, genocide. But Rwanda is a clear example of how African countries are rebuilding and moving forward aggressively and progressively. We saw how central women have been to this rebuilding process, from governing and reviving the economy to reconciling and healing the nation. This leadership and commitment is translating into dramatic progress in the fight against poverty and disease.

Second,

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Just when you thought the summer concert season was over, we’ve got some exciting news about an upcoming rockshow that ONE members won’t want to miss. In fact, it’s a show that’s got ONE’s name all over it.

The www.musicbuildstour.comONE Music Builds Tour will be launch later this month, bringing top-selling bands Third Day, Switchfoot, Robert Randolph and the Family Band and Jars of Clay to a city near you. The tour will kick off in Detroit on August 21st and wrap-up in Denver on October 12 and include 23 stops along the way.

This isn’t just going to be a typical rock concert - ONE’s going to be a big part of the show too. Just to name a few of the special things being planned, there will be videos featuring ONE in between sets focusing on three of ONE’s most exciting initiatives: ONE Sabbath, the ONE Campus Challenge and ONE Vote ‘08. We also plan on having two booths that will ride along on the whole tour where concert-goers can sign up and learn more about ONE and our issues.

We see this tour as a big opportunity for ONE members across the country to get together, have some fun, hear some great music, recruit new friends to the effort and add some noise to the fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease.

We’re still hammering out other details and ways we can bring as much attention to ONE as possible (can you say limited edition concert t-shirt?) and we’ll keep you up-to-date as the tour gets set to kick off in Detroit. For now, be sure to check out the ONE Music Builds Tour site, www.musicbuildstour.com, for more info about the bands and a full list of tour stops.

-Peter Grieser

When the Democratic and Republican parties meet for their conventions at the end of August and early September, they’ll be unveiling their parties’ new platforms - and we want to make sure that the fight against extreme poverty is an important part of both of those platforms.

That why our ONE Vote ‘08 Co-Chairs, Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle will be meeting with leaders of both parties, and taking a petition from ONE members urging them to make poverty-fighting a priority for both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Click this link and we’ll add your name to the petition

Petition Text:

As a proud American, I urge you to make ending extreme poverty and global disease in the developing world a core part of your 2008 platform by including commitments to:

• Fight AIDS, TB and malaria and improve basic health services, particularly for mothers and young children
• Ensure access to clean water, basic sanitation and sufficient food supplies
• Spur economic growth through equitable trade and investment policies
• Modernize and increase development assistance, focusing on partnership, transparency and accountability
• Achieve universal primary education

Yesterday afternoon, President Bush signed into law new PEPFAR legislation, finalizing months of work by ONE members, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders, advocacy organizations, foreign policy experts and medical professionals who worked together to pass historic new funding levels to fight AIDS, TB and malaria.

ONE Campaign Co-founder Bono issued this response:

“Americans, whether they know it or not, are literally saving the lives of millions of people in the poorest places on the planet. In the last five years, America has prevented 1 million women from passing on HIV to their babies…funded care for 3 millions AIDS orphans…and provided desperately needed medicine to more than 1.4 million people suffering from HIV/AIDS. You are my heroes and not just for what you’ve done, but for what this new law promises.

This has more to do with hard heads than soft hearts. America’s global AIDS plan has proved to be a smart investment, paying dividends in live saved, communities stabilized and America’s reputation in the world growing a little bit brighter. This stuff works and leaders from left and right — leaders like Senators Biden and Lugar, Representatives Berman and Ros-Lehtinen, President Bush, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid - put aside their differences and agreed to do more.”

ONE’s Legislative Deputy Director Maryamu Aminu is sending in live updates from the PEPFAR signing at the White House.

3pm:

-Very exciting atmosphere in the east gold room. They usually have state dinners in here.

-The procession just arrived and are standing on stage. Primary cosponsors: Biden, Berman, Kerry, Payne, Sununu, Brownback, Lugar, Lee, Pence, Dybul, and Enzi.

-People in the room:

Africa diplomatic corps and 15 focus-country ambassadors
Mrs Lantos, for whose husband the bill is named
Malaria coordinator- Anthony Zeimer
The African Children’s Choir
Peter Piot, head of UNAIDS

-President and the First Lady just arrived - to applause.

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