The ONE Campaign To Make Poverty History
Add Your Voice!
We travelers understand the reality of hunger on our planet better than people who don't have a chance to get out and experience our world. I am excited about a new way for the USA to work with other nations to fight hunger. A diverse coalition of anti-poverty groups (including Bread for the World, a group I support because of its very effective advocacy work in Washington D.C. with our government) and hundreds of thousands of individuals across the United States have come together as ONE — in a campaign called "ONE" — to fight global AIDS, extreme poverty and hunger.
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| Working together as ONE, we can make hunger history. |
For 31 years, Bread for the World has advocated on behalf of hungry and poor people in the United States and around the developing world. I've been a supporter and a fan of Bread for the World for more than 20 years. Because of its wonderful work, I urge you to hop over to Bread's website and add your name to the ONE Declaration.
Already, more than 400,000 people have signed the declaration. This is a new effort to rally people in the United States — ONE by ONE. Together, we recognize that all people on this planet are children of God and deserving of dignity. And together we can help others help themselves in this historic compact for compassion and justice for the most vulnerable people in our world.
This is a time of desperate need, but also one of tremendous hope. AIDS is a treatable, preventable illness. Antiretroviral medications for AIDS — and low-cost interventions we take for granted in the United States, like vaccines and clean water — would allow tens of millions of people in Africa and the developing world to raise their children and allow them to lead healthier, happier, longer lives.
Bono, the lead singer of the rock group U2 and founder of Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa (DATA) — one of the key partner organizations in the campaign — is ONE person who is using his celebrity to speak on behalf of those who are seeking a brighter future. For two decades he has been a passionate voice for the voiceless, engaging powerful world leaders on behalf of the desperately poor of our world.
"We are the first generation that really can do something about the kind of 'stupid' poverty that sees children dying of hunger in a world of plenty or mothers dying for lack of a 20-cent drug that we take for granted," he wrote in The Boston Globe. "We have the science, we have the resources, what we don't seem to have is the will."
Sure, this is a small gesture. But imagine what would happen if people like us who really care, actually acted as ONE. This is a great place to start.
Thank you,
Rick Steves