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Moms Making a Difference

October 21, 2011 at 6:39 PM ET by Raj Shah
Summary: 
USAID Administrator Raj Shah meets with the ONE Moms, Dr. Jill Biden and National Security Council Senior Director Gayle Smith to discuss the current crisis is in the Horn of Africa.

On Monday afternoon, I’ll head over to the White House to meet with the ONE Moms, along with Dr. Jill Biden and National Security Council Senior Director Gayle Smith.

If you haven’t heard of the ONE Moms, you should definitely learn more about them: a group of more than 12,000 women helping to lead a movement of change around the world to end poverty.

The group of ONE Moms we will be meeting with on Monday recently returned from a trip to Kenya where they met with African mothers living through the worst drought the world has seen in 60 years.  I’m sure the trip was an incredibly powerful experience for them, as similar trips have been for Dr. Biden, Gayle and me. 

When visiting the refugee camps in Kenya, you begin to truly understand just how devastating the current crisis is in the Horn of Africa truly is, especially for women and children. Right now, more than 13.3 million people---greater than the populations of New York City and Los Angeles combined---are in crisis.

Even sadder is the reality that crises like these don’t have to occur. We have the technology and tools to make sure droughts don't lead to this scale of human suffering. Through President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative, we are helping countries transform their own agricultural systems to grow enough to feed their own people.

I look forward to hearing about their experiences in Kenya and we hope they'll share it with you. We want everyone in America to understand the gravity of the current situation in the Horn and how they can help. That's also why USAID, in partnership with the Ad Council, has launched the FWD Campaign, to raise awareness about the crisis.

I’m particularly excited to preview an exciting announcement for the One Mom's that USAID and the Ad Council will formally rollout on Wednesday. Be sure to visit www.usaid.gov/FWD on Wednesday to see what we have in store.