As caucuses and primaries come ever closer, and with the general election almost exactly one year away, a conversation about health, poverty and politics could not come at a more prescient time.

Today at 5 p.m. in the HUB Ballroom students will have the unique privilege of participating in the ONE Student | ONE Vote college tour, which previously visited the University of Pennsylvania and University of Central Arkansas. According to One.org, the "ONE Student | ONE Vote initiative [is] an unprecedented drive to involve students in the electoral process, motivate them to become politically active, global citizens and provide them with an opportunity to affect substantial global change."

The event will be moderated by Jim VandeHei, a former White House correspondent for the Washington Post and the founder and co-editor of The Politico (which is co-sponsoring the event). Additionally, UW student and founder of the not-for-profit Rabuor Village Project (RVP), Loyce Mbewa-On'gudi, will be a keynote speaker for the event. MSNBC talk show host Keith Olbermann will also be appearing via satellite. Free pizza and a chance to win an iPod will be available.

The ONE Campaign is dedicated to fighting global health problems, specifically HIV/AIDS, and global poverty. Speaking on Charlie Rose, George Washington University professor Peter Hotez cited hookworm as a telling example on the link between health problems and extreme poverty.

"These conditions not only occur in the settings of poverty, but promote poverty," Hotez said. "One in three of the world's poorest people who live on less than $2 a day have hookworm."

"Economic analysis shows that chronic hookworm infection in childhood will reduce future wage earning capacity by 40 percent," he said.

Poverty and health problems viscously perpetuate one another. The ONE Campaign is a global effort to halt this devastating cycle.

Keynote speaker Mbewa-On'gudi started the RVP in 2003 to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in the village of Rabuor, where Mbewa-On'gudi was born, to develop sustainable community-based ways to end poverty. Mbewa-On'gudi's success in Rabuor has spawned the Village by Village initiative, which will replicate the programs RVP launched in Rabuor, like providing day care, securing a clean water source and supplying micro-loans.

ASUW President Tyler Dockins believes there is no better campus for the ONE Student | ONE Vote Campaign to visit and is proud they are visiting UW.

"Essentially the UW has a major place as a top spot when it comes to issues concerning global health," Dockins said. "The support we get from the state Legislature and the addition of Chris Murray coming from Harvard to [the] UW is pretty symbolic."

James Pfeiffer, a UW Health Sciences associate professor and a member of Health Alliance International, said students and organizations like ONE and Jubilee (which advocates the cancellation of debt for impoverished countries) can have a tremendous impact on issues concerning global health and poverty.

"Students can push our own government to support the strengthening of health and education systems," he said. "There aren't enough health workers; we don't have enough infrastructure."

Pfeiffer said that the focus of global health outreach efforts shouldn't be directed at the latest and greatest.

"Technological breakthroughs are not the most things right now. ... The most important thing right now is bringing basic services like healthcare and education," Pfeiffer said. "[The United States is] beginning to do a lot. ... We need more money, but we also need to spend it wisely. The best way we should be spending our money is building up health systems and education systems."

[Reach reporter Garrett Troy at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]