July 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton announced an upcoming trip to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal to promote the Clinton Foundation’s new programs to fight AIDS and malaria. Earlier this month, the Clinton Foundation “reached an agreement with several pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of the top anti-malaria treatment by 30 percent.”(AFP)
President Clinton travels to Africa once a year and his first trip was while he was president in 1998. Due to ONE members’ “Visit Africa” campaign in February, both Senators McCain and Obama have pledged, that if they’re elected, they’ll visit the continent during their presidency. Check out their pledges here.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Michael Gerson talks of “ONE’s Rwanda Trip” in an Op-Ed in today’s Post. In the piece, he repeats a truth that we as ONE members have been trying to get out about the immense progress in Rwanda since the 1994 genocide - saying that the country is making “some of the most rapid progress in the history of public health.”
“Cindy McCain’s first visit to this country, in 1994, was during the high season of roadblocks and machetes and shallow graves.
…[Last week, Cindy] McCain joined a bipartisan delegation — including former Senate majority leaders Bill Frist and Tom Daschle — organized by the ONE Campaign, a group that advocates for the fight against global poverty and disease. (I am also involved in the efforts of ONE.)
McCain came back to a very different Rwanda — peaceful, well governed, and making, with American help, some of the most rapid progress in the history of public health. “What has struck me,” says McCain, “is that most people are reconciling. A woman I met was gang-raped [during the genocide], her throat was slit, she lost her whole family, but was willing to forgive. The reason this will be a successful country is the women — some of the strongest, most inspiring women I have ever met.”
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:35 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
Last last week, PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for PEPFAR Relief) passed the Senate 80-16. Now we need the new version of the legislation to pass the House. If passed, $48 billion dollars will go toward the fight against global AIDS, malaria and TB over the next 5 years.
We expect the House vote today - and we’ll keep you posted here with updates as they roll in.
………………..
12:10 p.m. UPDATE: The PEPFAR House vote is now more likely for tomorrow.
“And could I also recognize another organization that is very, very popular and a very important one, not only here in New Hampshire but across the country, and that’s an organization called ONE.
This is an organization inspired by a lot of people including Bono and they have over 2 million volunteers in this nation, and they go all over the world, especially Africa, to help cure malaria, AIDS, cholera, and help people. This is one the great examples of what America is all about.
I’m proud that Cindy, and a group, a number of other people, are in Africa as we speak, with the organization called ONE trying to do what we can to help those people and that organization and publicize their great work.
Thank you to the group from ONE, will you guys stand? Thank you very much. Thank you.”
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:19 pm | posted by Erin Erlenborn, ONE Policy Staff
The front page of Sunday’s Washington Post featured story of women being disproportionately affected by the food crisis. Women grow, buy, and cook food but eat last and least. The following is an excerpt from WP’s story.
After she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family’s only meal of the day. First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands. Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else had finished, a bowl for herself. She always eats last.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
USA Today is featuring a story on Americans who find purpose fighting poverty in Africa. (Can’t think of anyone who fits that profile around these parts..;)
The continent’s infamous problems…provide an opportunity for Americans to do good when U.S. popularity is sagging just about everywhere else. “People feel there are obvious solutions” to what ails Africa, says Eric Hartman, who runs a program to introduce students to Africa. “It holds that attraction.”
…many American programs are paying off with declines in AIDS deaths and poverty rates. African governments also are doing more to encourage peace and economic development.
The piece goes onto highlight Rwanda’s transformation in particular. (ONE has a crew traveling through Rwanda right now to highlight effective American aid.)
Nowhere has the transformation been as dramatic as Rwanda, where in 1994 as many as 1 million people were killed in a horrific 100-day spree of ethnic violence.
The economy is still recovering — the average wage is less than $1 a day — but visitors to the capital, Kigali, are often shocked by the strides Rwanda has made. The airport is orderly and clean; the streets are safe to walk; and a tourism boom has led to several restaurants opening.
Also, a stat I’ve never heard before:
“On balance, though, Americans’ affection for Africa seems to be reciprocated. According to a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of world opinion, nine of the 10 nations most favorable toward America are in Africa (the other is Israel). Residents of Kenya, Ghana and the Ivory Coast regard Americans more favorably than Americans do.”
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am | posted by Sen.Bill.Frist.M.D
July 19, 2 pm
Nyandugu Coffee Washing Station
How in the world can you take an economy in which over 50% of the population is under the poverty level, is landlocked, ranks somewhere around 160th out of 180 countries on the “Developmental Scale,” and even think about “making extreme poverty history?” as we in ONE like to say.
Answer: Establish viable, sustainable economic growth based on the resources that you have. And the resources that Rwanda naturally have are agriculture (even though it is the most densely populated country in Africa) and tourism (they showcase the upland or mountain gorilla, the magnificent cousins to the lowland gorillas—those whom I used to take care of in the National Zoo –– but more on that in a couple of days).
First, the ONE delegation went to see a fantastic partnership at a “Coffee Washing Station,” owned by the Alfred Nkubili. Our U.S. government, namely USAID, has partnered with the owner and manager to establish a coffee bean washing station. This station purchases coffee beans (”cherries” actually) from farmers (many peasant farmers) and then they process the bean through a washing cycle that separates the beans by quality. These beans become the specialty coffee beans that are sold to Starbucks and specialty coffee shops across America.
To accommodate the burgeoning specialty coffee market, these washing stations hire about 200 women to separate and process the beans. At these facilities, these women’s salaries are double to what they could make elsewhere. And a doubling of their salary means
July 21st, 2008 at 6:15 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle talks about the growth of Rwanda’s tourism industry and its inspirational impact on the country’s economy, culture, and citizens’ quality of life.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:14 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
While on the bus traveling between locations in Rwanda, Cindy McCain reflects on the trip so far, noting the themes of forgiveness and the Rwandan women who are moving the country forward.
July 21st, 2008 at 6:10 pm | posted by Sen.Bill.Frist.M.D
July 19, 2008
11 am
The first stop this morning was the Kigali Genocide Memorial Center. John Podesta and I laid a wreath at the mass grave site of the genocide victims. I had the opportunity to do this last year when I was in Rwanda with Samaritan’s Purse, Scott Hughett, and my wife, Karyn (who is at home now recuperating from back surgery). The site and the service in which we participated are a moving, memorial remembrance of the million people who died over those 100 days of genocide. (It is so hard to comprehend). Each member of our delegation laid a single rose alongside the wreath, one by one, as we each paid our respects. Beneath that wreath lay a mass grave, one of many at the site, containing the partial remains of over 5,000 individuals from the Kigali region.
It was remarkable that the memorial was designed to tell the story a mere four years after the genocide occurred,
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