Global Weekly Update August 16, 2010
Take Action: Generate Media on the Global Fund’s Replenishment Meeting This Fall
The UN MDG Summit is September 20–22 and the Stand Up, Take Action for the MDGs is September 17–19. Can we generate media to make an impact for the Global Fund replenishment in October?
Write an LTE! Our goal is to generate 50 by September 19.
The action sheet (Word) is focused on writing a letter to the editor (LTE) on the need for the U.S. to support the funding replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Take this action today and share it with your friends and community.
Get editorials and op-eds published! Our goal is to generate 15 editorials and 10 op-eds by September 19.
Use this this editoral packet available that you can share with your local paper’s editor to explain the issue to them and give them the resources so they can write their own editorial.
New Resources:
- August 17 and 18: Global Fund/MDG Summit Media Training, 9 PM ET. Get ideas, inspiration, and assistance making your Global Fund media push in the run-up to the MDG Summit! Call (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262.
- Listen to Zambian TB-HIV activist Winstone Zulu speak about the powerful impact of the Global Fund in Zambia and Africa. (Winstone is introduced at 5:20)
- August laser talk on pitching an editorial about the Global Fund to your local media outlet
- New UNF documentary that captures direct-impact stories of Global Fund success. Watch the video today.
- Visit the “Here I Am” campaign website to read and listen to the stories of the people who are alive today because of the Global Fund.
- BBC story on disappointment over the Obama administration’s response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
- More stories related to how critical it is to fund the Global Fund.
Action: Schedule an August Meeting with Your Reps and Senators
Congress is on summer recess until September 10.
A “recess” means that reps and senators are in their districts and states for meetings with constituents. Call the local scheduler today and ask for a time to meet — be creative! You can meet at their office, at a local coffee shop, or a community event. And don’t forget to sign up for their e-mail lists on their websites to find out when they will be holding town hall meetings and other events for constituents.
Use our Activist Milestone #7 to guide you and find a sample letter to send to your scheduler.
Speak to reps and senators about the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria: You did a great job getting 101 representatives to sign the House sign-on letter urging the president to make a three-year, $6 billion committment to the Global Fund (see the FY12 House letter to Obama on our appropriations page). Now is the time to leverage that work. Urge your representatives and senators to speak personally with the administration about this request and/or write an op-ed in the local paper. You can write an LTE about it, too!
You can also ask your representatives to cosponsor:
- the bill for the currency transaction levy,
- the Yunus Gold Medal Act (we only need 8 more House cosponsors!) and/or
- the Education for All Act.
Stand Up, Take Action Weekend Is on September 17–19. Are You Ready?
Stand Up, Take Action: Make Noise for the MDGs is a worldwide awareness and action-taking weekend for the end of poverty. Individuals and groups all over the world choose to create and take part in a variety of different community events — Stand Up events — every year to make their voices heard and move the planet that much closer to putting poverty in the history books.
This year, Stand Up weekend will happen right before the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit in September. This year’s theme is the achievement of the MDGs.
We believe that continuing to work toward the achievement of the MDGs by 2015 is critical for a dignified, hopeful future. Even though we struggle to see the kind of progress toward the achievement of the MDGs that we ought to be seeing, the MDGs remain a sound, inspiring roadmap for our way ahead in eradicating poverty.
Your Stand Up, Take Action: Make Noise for the MDGs! Global National Outreach Weekend Planning Guide is available to help your plan your group’s event is now available. Consider “standing up” this September to grow your group, fundraise for RESULTS, and/or raise your voice for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals!
Bring Your TB Advocacy to the Next Level — Apply for a World AIDS Day Mini-Grant!
World AIDS Day (WAD) is December 1. To help highlight the deadly synergy between TB and HIV, RESULTS Educational Fund (REF) is offering RESULTS grassroots groups the opportunity to undertake TB advocacy activities for WAD 2010 and beyond that might not be possible without support funding. Activities can fall between September 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010. We are making funds available, through a competitive grant application process, for WAD events and TB awareness building in your communities. These mini-grants are funded through REF’s ACTION project.
Visit our 2010 World AIDS Day page for a link to the application.
Ideas Types of Activities — Be Creative!
- Organize a community panel discussion on TB-HIV co-infection and invite the media, community members, and members of Congress.
- Reach out to local HIV/AIDS groups to build coalition support around events that could highlight TB-HIV.
- Organize a conference call for journalists with local or state TB experts (e.g. a state TB controller).
- Hold a screening and discussion of a TB-HIV related film.
- Research the history of TB in your community and do a public art show, display, discussion or other community event to bring attention to it and the current state of affairs of TB in the world.
- Work with your local opera on their production of La Boheme or La Traviata and make the connection to TB.
- Organize a book club around an appropriate TB related book.
- Identify and work with one or more TB patients to help them become advocates. Find opportunities for them to write and be published, speak out publicly, speak anonymously (on a radio program for example).
- Create an event — a rally, a walk, a candlelight vigil — that brings media attention to TB.
August Congressional Recesses: House: 8/2 to 9/10; Senate: 8/6 to 9/10
August 17: Global Fund/MDG Summit Media Training Call #1. 9:00 pm ET. Get ideas, inspiration, assistance making your Global Fund media push in the run-up to the MDG Summit! Call (712) 432-3100, passcode 761262.
August 18: Global Fund/MDG Summit Media Training Call #2. 9:00 pm ET.
September 17–19: National outreach for all groups around Stand Up Against Poverty weekend.
September 20–22: UN MDG Summit.
October–December: Fall fundraising campaign.
October 3: Muhammad Yunus will be on the Simpsons to talk about the power of microfinance! Think about hosting a house party. Listen to this interview with Yeardley Smith, the voice of Lisa Simpson and microfinance advocate.
December 1: World AIDS Day. Interested in an event to raise awareness about TB-HIV coinfection? Think of all the possibilities, and then apply for a mini-grant to help your event take off!
Other Dates
September–November: We’ll be working to identify U.S. TB patient advocates who can speak powerfully about their experience with TB to make it real for our communities.
October or November: Media training for TB Controllers and grassroots activists.