RESULTS screenings of "Building Hope" with filmmaker Turk Pipkin

Building Hope
Join filmmaker Turk Pipkin
at two special RESULTS screenings
Sunday, June 5 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.
at Austin’s new Violet Crown Cinema

8 p.m. reception for both audiences hosted by Turk and/or Christy Pipkin

AMLI Building / 434 W. 2nd St.downtown Austin

$13 includes 4-hr free parking (enter AMLI garage on San Antonio) and reserved seating

The theater has only 50 seats so buy your tickets in advance at: http://www.violetcrowncinemas.com

The Nobelity Project's inspiring new film is about building Mahiga Hope High School in Kenya. After rebuilding a rural Kenyan primary school, Turk Pipkin and The Nobelity Project pledged to help build the area’s first high school. Through challenges and triumphs, Building Hope chronicles the construction of Mahiga Hope High and the connection between a thousand people in the U.S. and an African community working to create a better future for their children.

Building Hope was awarded the prestigious Lone Star Audience Award after the film’s premiere at the SXSW Film Festival.

The film includes appearances by Desmond Tutu, Wangari Maathai, Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity, and Kenyan youth counselor, Auma Obama, sister of President Barack Obama. Music by: Willie Nelson, Paul Simon, Eliza Gilkyson, Kat Emondson and Ayub Ogada.

‘Inspirational Red Bull for the humanitarian soul and proof positive that you – yes, you – can help fix our broken world and make a difference in the lives of countless others.’ - The Austin Chronicle

‘Building Hope is an inspiring documentary that not only builds hope for the youth of Kenya, but also empowers people thousands of miles away to affect change through small yet significant contributions.’ - Slackerwood.com

View the trailer for Building Hope at: www.nobelity.org

100% of The Nobelity Project’s proceeds from the Violet Crown screenings June 3 - June 9 benefit their Kenya Schools Fund, building classrooms, libraries, computer labs and water systems at rural Kenyan schools.

Top Action: Ask Your Member of Congress to Take Action on GAVI

Time is running short. The GAVI pledging conference is on June 13 in London. Can we get Congress to communicate to the president and his administration that the U.S. must go to London with a powerful request? The answer lies in your boldness in the coming weeks. How bold will you be?

Opportunity: Save 4.2 million children’s lives by 2015 with two new vaccinations to protect against rotavirus and pneumonia. With adequate funding, GAVI will make these new vaccinations available to kids in 44 countries. We need a three-year pledge totaling $450 million from the U.S. This pledge represents less than one-fifth of the overall need. The rest will come from other sources.

Some members of Congress will tell you that these are tough times and that we cannot continue spending money. We need to remind them that we elect them to lead and that all spending is not equal. Some spending cuts will result in tighter budgets, delayed projects, or less waste. Very few expenditures can promise to save millions of lives.

Here’s what you can do:

• WE NEED LEADERSHIP on a SIGN-ON LETTER to President Obama. Ask your member of Congress to become the lead sponsor of a bi-partisan sign-on letter to the president. You can send him/her this draft letter as a starter. If you need help making your request, please contact Ken Patterson or Lisa Marchal. We’d like President Obama to receive bi-partisan letters from both the Senate and the House with lots of signatures on them showing support for a bold U.S. pledge.
• Ask your member to send their own letter to the president. If your member of Congress is not willing to lead on a letter, ask him/her to write their own letter using our draft letter as a starting place.
• Generate media. Send our editorial packet to your local paper and ask them to write about GAVI. Or write your own write a letter to the editor using our online tool. For examples, see what activists Beth Wilson, Caroline Fleming, Nancy Gardiner, Ken Patterson, and Martha Clemons got published this weekend.
• Write to your member of Congress about GAVI and encourage others to do the same. Use our action alert to write to your member of Congress about the need to fund GAVI adequately in 2012 so that the world can undertake this critical vaccine initiative.

Saturday’s National Conference Call with UNICEF’s Executive Director Dr. Tony Lake

Join RESULTS’ National Conference Call at 1:00 pm CDT on Saturday, May 14 to hear from special guest Dr. Tony Lake, who brings more than 45 years of public service experience to his position as the executive director of UNICEF. Dr. Lake served as a senior foreign policy advisor to the campaign of President Barack Obama, and he also served as national security advisor to President Bill Clinton.

At UNICEF, Dr. Lake has spearheaded a renewed focus on equity to ensure that the poorest of the poor are not left behind in the race to meet the Millennium Development Goals. New research from UNICEF demonstrates that focusing on the very poor is not only the right thing to do, it is also cost-effective and yields the most impact. This approach runs contrary to the conventional wisdom that reaching the poorest and most marginalized populations is too expensive. In an editorial, the New York Times called this equity approach "counterintuitive and compelling." Join us in Austin at the monthly Global Team conference call, Saturday May 14 at 1:00 pm CDT to hear more from Dr. Lake on his vision for UNICEF's leadership.

Speak Up for Funding Vital Foreign Assistance Programs in FY12

Make a Call to Your Representative this Week. There are many  members of Congress who  understand how important foreign assistance  is to the U.S. as well as how important it is to the  individuals and families it ultimately reaches. Because foreign aid is not disappearing from our national budget, it is  critical that even those who do not favor it insist that it be used in smart, effective ways. It is important that  our representatives know that foreign aid is vital to our economy, our  security,  and our global leadership. Encourage your representative to support at least one of the effective solutions articulated in our appropriations requests (microfinance, TB, Global Fund, GAVI, Education for All). Our representatives must submit their requests electronically to the chairs of the Foreign Operations Subcommittee by May 20, so we need to act this week to give our representatives time to make the request. (The House is in recess May 16-20, but members can still make requests during that time.) Call and ask for the  foreign policy aide, make the request to support  funding levels for one  of our priorities noted above, and follow up by  sending appropriate information.  Our action sheet can help you with this.

Make a Call to Your Senators. The Senate must refuse the House's approach to reducing our federal deficit. Let both of your senators know that   we expect them to do better. The House of Representatives passed a budget for 2012 that would make  draconian cuts to foreign assistance programs—the same programs that boost U.S. exports, according to the Chamber of Commerce, and make us safer, according to 70 retired military leaders. Cutting foreign aid as the House recommends risks our economy, our security, and lives.