Future Candidates and the fight for Liberia

A Message from One.Org


Last week, President Bush began his trip to five African nations and we began an unprecedented campaign to urge the presidential candidates to pledge to visit Africa in their first term.

We set an aggressive goal of 50,000 petition signatures and you smashed right through it. Now we're getting close to our new goal of 80,000 signatures. But we only have until Thursday, when the president gets back,to finish this campaign and deliver the petitions to the candidates.

Click below to add your name to the petition and send the message that the next president needs to pledge to visit Africa in his or her first term and commit to strengthening U.S. cooperation with the nations and people of Africa--cooperation that is achieving real results.

http://onevote08.org/ontherecord/visitafrica/o.pl/?id=242-3683323-loOv8A&t=2

The petition is direct and simple:

As a voter in the 2008 Presidential election, I'm asking you to pledge
to visit Africa during your first term in office. It is my hope that
your trip will increase U.S.-African cooperation, save lives and help
build a better, more secure future for millions of the world's poorest
people.

After you sign the petition, check out the ONE Blog, which is following this trip closely, with on-the-ground coverage and analysis from leaders like Senator Dick Durbin, Michael Gerson and Bob Geldof.

Our own Taylor Royle is traveling with the White House press corps and filed this report from Rwanda:

This morning in Kigali, Rwanda, I attended two events: first, a roundtable discussion on education with First Lady Laura Bush, First Lady Jeannette Kagame and a group of Rwandan schoolgirls...

The schoolgirls at the roundtable were very nervous, but they each stood up and told Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Kagame their stories. Their ages ranged from 16 to 18 and they all came from families who could not afford to pay for their schooling. Each girl was a beneficiary of the African Education Initiative--in other words, your tax dollars and mine put these girls in school. And that was an amazing thing to see.

Education for girls in poor countries means that they are much more likely to earn decent wages as adults and much less likely to become infected with HIV. Mrs. Bush asked them if they all knew how to prevent AIDS: they all said they did.

One other thing that surprised me: more than half of the girls were heading to universities to study physics or chemistry...

Now I am back in the White House press corps filing center. It's funny to listen to the TV and radio reporters filing their stories. Surely they have seen many interesting things on this trip so far--but all of them are talking about the bed net factory they visited yesterday. They are amazed that children die from malaria transmitted by mosquito bites, that something as simple as an insecticide treated bed net can save lives...and that the United States is not only saving lives by buying these bed nets for families--we are also providing jobs to the workers in the factory and better lives for their families as well.

Taylor's post shows us what the Africa of the future can be. The best traditions of American leadership and generosity can bring us closer to a day when many more young women are university-bound and no one in Rwanda or anywhere else in Africa lives in fear of a lethal mosquito bite.

Send a message to the presidential candidates that we want the next president--no matter who that is--to commit to visiting Africa during his or her first term.

http://onevote08.org/ontherecord/visitafrica/o.pl/?id=242-3683323-loOv8A&t=5

Next time I write to you, the president will be back in Washington and these petitions will be in the hands of the presidential candidates. Thank you for helping us to finish strong and make sure that the next occupant of the Oval Office is an ally in ending extreme poverty and global disease in Africa and throughout the world.

Thank you for your voice,

Josh Peck, ONE.org

The "Ask The Presidential Candidates To Visit Africa" campaign is brought to you by ONE Action. Only 501(c)(3) activities are funded by The ONE Campaign.

Six Months - Hard to Believe

Yesterday earmarked the six month point of Akins coming home. It sure has flown by. It is amazing to think of the journey from the beginning to now and what all has been accomplished and then to ponder what might be to come. To summarize things would be impossible as the list is simply too long but to make it fun here are some of the highlights from my perspective (not necessarily all fun parts of the journey and not necessarily in any particular order):

- The relief to learn that Akins had told the other kids that he would be sitting on his American mother's lap and that they were to stay away from me, thus putting many of my fears of what if he doesn't like me to rest.
- A very dark August 8th night taking a scared little boy into the night and into my arms away from everything he knew.
- The feeling of being a scared new mother.
- The fear of leaving Africa without the small boy that had called me Mommy for a week and the absolute relief when the Consular said "I have thought about this all day and I am going to grant this visa because I do not know what will happen to this boy if I don't".
- A thirty hour trip on three different airplanes.
- The sound of hearing me say "this is my son".
- Numerous doctors’ visits including two umbilical and one circumcision surgery.
- Two day care and one pre-school change.
- The first "Mommy I love you".
- A truckload of chicken consumed.
- Lights and flushing still a challenge to stop obsessing at times.
- Screaming at the introduction to the dogs.
- Relief the first time he touched one of the dogs.
- Frustration and confusion when we could not understand each other.
- Finally settling on the proper way to say his new name and the sadness I realize when I know how much he associates with the name Junior.
- The first hint of discrimination when an older man gave us a very disapproving look and the feeling of fear for what may come down the road.
- Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the first snow and fires in the fireplace.
- Bikes, trikes, cars, jeeps, toys and clothes.
- Shopping for the first time.
- Seatbelts and the relief when the fear ended.
- Swimming lessons and the pool.
- Lots of singing, playing lots of tricks on each other and a lot of laughing.
- Pouting and defiance like no American kid has ever displayed.
- Compliments on the beauty of Akins nearly every time we go out.
- Attempting to find a church that makes sense.
- The day he said "Mommy, my new school no say dude"!
- Lots of children's stories I had forgotten all about and he never knew.
- Sweet kisses and the way he looks when he is peacefully sleeping.
- The way he smells right after a bath.
- Two whole weeks of sleeping in my own bed all the way through the night without a meltdown.
- American slang and a very literal African boy.

Today, Lorea said "What do you want to do today"? I asked "Hang around the house and kick it"? Akins says "Yeah" and proceeds to kick his feet wildly.

One other highlight that must not go unmentioned is the bond and deep friendships I have built with the mother's who have also taken this journey. I could not have made it through some of these times without the support of my MUAA sisters that includes all of them no matter how long they have been part of the group or how long they remain.