Stopping cuts to US foreign aid

In the fervor to reduce deficits lawmakers are making a whole host of poor choices. One such error is the effort to cut foreign assistance, which is why campaigning group ONE has launched a petition on Change.org to make sure it doesn’t happen.

This is a fight about the help that the US gives to help people around the world to lift themselves out of extreme poverty – the type of poverty that has mothers putting their children to bed with empty stomachs for weeks on end. This type of aid has done massive good for the world. For example; nearly 4 million more Africans are on life-saving AIDS medications since 2002, 46.2 million more African children started going to school since 2000, and malaria rates are down by 50% or more in 38 countries.

These statistics are overwhelming in their scale, but if you were to dive into the personal stories behind them, you would meet a generation of people growing up ready to build stronger, more secure, and more stable societies. This isn’t charity, this is about enabling millions more people to join the global market place – leading longer healthier lives and making larger contributions to the human condition. Which is likely why you hear people like US Treasury Secretary Geithner making the case for not cutting aid.

Of course US aid isn’t doing this all on it’s own, but it’s a key ingredient. And it does all that good while being just 1% of budget.

The fact that so much good is achieved at so little cost is likely why right now unlikely allies like Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and Former First Lady Laura Bush are speaking out in defence of foreign aid.

Now if only lawmakers could see the light as well.

The House of Representatives voted to slash foreign aid spending in February, and now there is a hard fight going on in the Senate to make the funding doesn’t end up on the chopping block. The votes in both chambers have come down along fairly partisan lines, which only a handful crossing the aisle on each vote. So as this will be decided in closely divided Senate, it’s absolutely critical that we all make our voices heard.

Winning this and similar campaigns depends on our ability to quickly call on thousands of supportive folks like you. After signing the petition below, please click here to follow us on Facebook - just click ‘Like’ at the top of the page.

Photo credit: © ONE | Morgana Wingard