the ONE campaign is the u.s. version of “make poverty history” (which is the u.k. version of the ONE campaign). basically this is a grassroots effort to push our government for fighting for economic justice concerning the poorest of the poor within our world. this translates to the u.s. government moving towards an additional one percent of it’s budget (roughly 25 billion) being directed towards helping honest governments overcome extreme poverty and health issues and using legal means to fight against the corpution in other governments that diverts resources away from these needs.
here’s what an additional one percent of the use budget would be able to do:
- help prevent 10 million children from becoming AIDS orphans
- help get 104 million children into grade school.
- help provide water to almost 900 million people around the globe.
- save almost 6.5 million children under 5 from dying of diseases that could be prevented with low-cost measures like vaccination or a well for clean water.
pretty impressive what an additional one percent will do huh?
the irony is that the u.s. and the other g8 countries have already agreed to the u.n. millenium goals that are behind the ONE campaign’s desire. the “millenium goals” were setup with the u.n. to cut extreme poverty in half by the year 2015. the problem is that we are all way behind on reaching these goals.
so here’s why i’m writing this.
- first, to encourgae you to commit yourself toward making your “one” voice be heard. “one’ voice can make allot of difference when it is combined with many other voices for the same purpose. you can sign the ONE campaign pledge by clicking here. our government follows what is important to the people. if enough of us tell our respresenatives that eliminating extreme poverty is important to us then it will become important to them.
- secondly, help me in considering the possiblity of hosting a “ONE campaign” event at our church or in baton rouge. i have been in contact with the southern united states coordinator of the ONE campaign concerning such an event and she has expressed interested in doing something here. if we do one i will need everyone’s help that i can get.
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