House to hear testimony on MDG's tomorrow (7/27)

From Millennium Promise...
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Dear Supporters of the Millennium Development Goals,

We are excited to announce that tomorrow, July 27, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs will hear testimony on the Millennium Development Goals--it is the first time Congress has ever held a hearing on the MDGs!

John McArthur, CEO, Millennium Promise will testify alongside Kathy Calvin, CEO, United Nations Foundation, and Scott Ratzan, Vice President, Global Health, Government Affairs and Policy, Johnson & Johnson.

The congressional committee wants to hear about the status of the Millennium Development Goals—the world's integrated targets to reduce extreme poverty by 2015—and discuss specifically what steps should be taken to ensure the achievement of the Goals.

You may watch a live feed of the hearing here: http://www.hcfa.house.gov/

On the bottom left-hand side of the page you’ll find the link to the live feed. The link is only put up when something is being broadcast -- there is currently a picture inserted in the corner as a placeholder where the link will appear for the live feed.

Of course, if you are in DC you are welcome to attend the hearing in person!
Video and text of the testimony will available soon on the Millennium Promise website (www.millenniumpromise.org).

Here are further details:

Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight
Russ Carnahan (D-MO), Chairman

Achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals:
Progress through Partnerships

Rayburn House Office Building
Room 2172
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
9:30 AM

Witnesses:
John McArthur, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Millennium Promise

Ms. Kathy Calvin
Chief Executive Officer
United Nations Foundation

Scott C. Ratzan, M.D.
Vice President, Global Health, Government Affairs and Policy
Johnson & Johnson

Thank you!

--The Millennium Promise Team

Microbicidal gel and education empower women to stay HIV free

There is exciting news in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention!

1) A promising new microbicidal gel has shown that women who used it were 39% less likely over all to contract HIV than those who used a placebo. Regular usage even reduced transmission chances by 54%!

2) A study in Malawi showed that offering impoverished girls small amounts of money for regular school attendance reduced AIDS and herpes infection. After a year and a half of the program, girls who received payments were less than half as likely to be infected than girls whose families got no payments. The girls started to have sex later, less often and with fewer partners.

What this says to me is what we have known all along. Empowering women to make their own choices...whether through education or access to health information and resources...is a key to fighting AIDS and poverty.


Here's the article in the New York Times about it.

Sam Daley-Harris talks Purpose, Poverty, Pitfalls and Redemption

Sam Daley-Harris is founder of RESULTS, a citizen lobby on ending global poverty, and founder of the Microcredit Summit Campaign. In May 2010 Sam gave a talk at TEDx NJ Libraries titled: “Purpose, Poverty, Pitfalls, and Redemption”. Please listen to Sam’s remarks and pass it on to friends if you enjoyed it as much as I did! Here’s the link:

Click here to see the video


FYI...Here is the link to all of the TEDx NJ Libraries talks: http://www.tedxnjlibraries.com