Father's Wake-Up Call Turns To Global Poverty Fight

GREENDALE, WI — When Scott Petersen's son Gavin - all of 36 hours old - was strapped in an ambulance and rushed to Children's Hospital with a critical birth defect, it was a wake-up call for him.

"I thought back to that incident and thought to myself, 'Why me? Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live.'"

Petersen, now 46 years old, felt like he and his family were some of the lucky ones. Others in different parts of the world don't have access to this type of life-saving treatment.

After years of critical care and several difficult surgeries, Gavin received the medical treatment he needed, and is now a healthy nine-year-old in Greendale.

He had activism in his blood and a passion for helping others. He was on board with the ONE Campaign since its inception in 2000. The ONE Campaign is an international lobbying organization that fights extreme poverty and disease - notably in Africa - by pressuring lawmakers to support policies and programs to help the less fortunate.

New Budget = New Challenges

When federal officials including President Donald Trump proposed slashing the U.S. international affairs budget by 30 percent for the 2018-19 biennium, Petersen's activism took a step forward.

In late February, Petersen traveled to Washington D.C. to speak with local representatives to protect foreign aid.

Politics in Washington moves at a frenetic pace, and Petersen's group squeezed in visits with Speaker Paul Ryan, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and Senators Ron Johnson and Tammy Baldwin.

Petersen said that the ONE Campaign is working with both the House and the Senate and members of both the Republican and Democratic parties.

Petersen said that many of the meetings were with legislative aides or staff members, who would then inform their representatives on key details of the meetings.

Petersen said Ryan's aide Paul Hallett gave him a half-hour to state their case to protect U.S. foreign aid.

"The U.S. has been a leader in generostity since World War Two. It's really in America's best interest to fight extreme global poverty security," he said. "We don't want to go backward, and it's proven that it's worked."

Petersen cited something that U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis said before members of congress at a National Security Advisory Council meeting in early 2017 that formed the crux of the importance of U.S. foreign aid as a function of national security.

"If you don't fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately," Mattis said. "The more that we put into the State Department's diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene."

Of all the takeaways Petersen said he had from his visit to Washington D.C. was that he felt his comments were well-received.

"Our elected leaders are actually anxious to listen to their constituents," he said.

Submitted Photo, Published With Permission