Global Weekly Update August 30, 2010

Full Speed Ahead: Generating Media on the Global Fund’s Replenishment Meeting This Fall

Congratulations on all your amazing media efforts so far! But we need everyone to make an effort at a editorial, and oped, or a letter to the editor to drive the message to the President. What will you do to help us hit our goals of placing 15 editorials, 10 opeds, 50 letters to the editor by September 19?

Some highlights from your efforts so far:

• Our first editorial in Dallas, and meetings with editorial writers in Miami, Durham, Houston, Los Angeles, Detroit, Indianapolis, Seattle, Cleveland, Tampa
• ‘Recent letters to
•  editor in Contra Costa, Dallas, Philadelphia, Houston, Asheville, Seattle
• Opeds being submitted in Salt Lake, Tampa, Atlanta.
• Hooks using the end of combat in Iraq, Swine Flu epidemic, scientific developments in AIDS, local Stand Up events being planned.

Remember to use these take action resources to help you:

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.

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.

Other Resources:

• 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 the 5:20 mark.)
• 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.

Exciting Conference Call Saturday, September 11 — Support the Global Fund!

Join us Saturday, September 11, at 2:00 pm ET for an exciting monthly conference call. Our special guest speaker will be Dr. John McArthur, the CEO of Millennium Promise. Millennium Promise is the leading international non-profit organization solely committed to supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015. Dr. McArthur oversees the Millennium Villages project, which supports integrated social and business development services for more than 400,000 people in rural communities across 10 countries in Africa.

The UN Millennium Development Goals Summit takes place September 20–22. Gearing up for that important conference, join this call to learn the progress made and challenges to achieving the MDGs and hows the replenishment of the Global Fund factors in to achieving global goals for health and poverty. We’ll hear about these important questions and get inspired to take action.

Use the Stand Up, Take Action Weekend to Get Local Media

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, register, 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. REGISTER YOUR EVENT so people can find you!

This fall is a critial time for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The U.S. needs to go to the Summit and to the Global Fund replenishment in October with a pledge of $6 billion over 3 years in order to ensure that this critical global health mechanism can continue to save lives. Your local Stand Up event shows your community and our government that Americans do care about supporting the Global Fund.

Think about how you can use this opportunity to get local media. It’s a local angle on a huge global event. Some ideas include:

• Invite your local editorial writer or reporter to your event and ask them to write an editorial or story.
• Ask your editor if you can write an op-ed on the event and on the need for the U.S. to take action.
• Write letters to the editor and send them in at the same time about your event and the need for the U.S. to take action at the Summit and at the Global Fund replenishment in October.

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! Plan and register your event!

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.

When I found that the Mercury News would not hold an editorial board meeting with our group until after the elections, I realized that the opportunity for a TB-HIV spokesman in our region might be wasted. But then I thought of the largest talk-radio station on the west coast and got excited by the possibility of such a huge audience for our message. Despite the long odds, I felt the potential upside of exposure and increased public support were worth a strong effort. So this Don Quixote is charging to accomplish the impossible!

— Bob Alders, San Jose Group Leader

August Congressional Recesses: House: 8/2 to 9/13; Senate: 8/6 to 9/13 (Session expected to resume on 9/13.)

September 11: Global Conference Call. Focus: Millennium Development Goals with John McArthur from Millennium Promise. 2:00 pm ET. Call in at (888) 409-6709.

September 15: Training call on navigating the RESULTS website. Call in to (712) 432-3100, passcode 716262.

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.