Ian Hartner

Summer Fellow 2008, JubileeUSA

When I first applied for fellowships through the Beatitudes Society, I didn’t imagine that I would have the extraordinary experience that I’ve had this summer.

Jubilee USA is an organization dedicated to increasing debt cancellation and improving conditions around responsible lending for the poorest countries in our world. This summer we’ve been working on a variety of things, the most pertinent being The Jubilee Act for Responsible Lending and Debt Cancellation (S 2166). In the last weeks of my time at Jubilee USA I was able to attend meetings with numerous Senate staffers on Capitol Hill and sit in on planning and strategy sessions. While the Jubilee Act won’t be enacted into law before my fellowship is over, I feel that through this Beatitudes Society Fellowship I have been able to contribute to its progress.

When I arrived at Jubilee the first priority was to get ready for our annual Grassroots Training and Organizing Conference in Columbus, OH. Since I had done my under-graduate work in Columbus, I was able to be useful in many ways. In addition to my geographical expertise I also created conference materials and spearheaded the conference follow up effort to encourage grassroots to continue to participate in our campaigns, such as the picture new leadership campaign.

“Picture New Leadership on Global Poverty and Debt” is Jubilee’s campaign asking for the presidential candidates to take an affirmative stance on debt cancellation and to appoint a Secretary of the Treasury who will do the same. The campaign also advocates for the creation of a new cabinet level position and Department of Global Development. We ask people to get together in groups and take a picture with a sign that says “Picture and End to Global Poverty! More and Better Aid!” They are then asked to fax this picture to their local campaign offices. Hopefully the candidates will “get the picture!”

It’s been a busy 8 weeks and I would not have believed from the start that I would have learned so much and I only wish that I had more time to spend.

Sincerely,

Ian Hartner
Jubilee USA
Washington, DC

Strengthening the progressive Christian network for justice, compassion, & peace