It has become as common as wearing a watch on your wrist, or as frequent as putting a bracelet on your arm. The yellow "LIVESTRONG" wristband that helps support cancer has become so widespread, that it has become a part of American culture. Since the famous yellow wristband made its debut, other wristbands supporting various causes have entered into our now ‘charity enlightened’ lives. Among all the wristbands, there is one that is a plain white wristband, marked simply with the word "ONE". It does not support cancer or AIDS or any other disease that we struggle against, but rather it is a fight against poverty, and the fight is actually with some of the most powerful governments in the world.
The ONE campaign is a Global Call to End Poverty whose most recognizable advocate is U2's lead singer Bono, who along with various musicians, actors/actresses, religious leaders, and sports figures have pulled together support to push countries to meet their goals in an agreement made at the United Nations called the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) back in 2000. The United Nation Summit in September of 2000 discussed various issues that faced the global community in the coming millennium which included the dramatic issue of world poverty and AIDS that focused mainly on Africa. Consequently, the MGDs were established where the richest countries in the world, would commit 0.7% of 100% of their federal budget which would go to help eliminate poverty and AIDS in developing countries around the world. The MGDs goals call for, if the proper goals were met, that we could half extreme poverty around the world by 2015 and we could completely eradicate poverty by 2025.
Currently, only a few countries actually meet this current mark of 0.7% and in fact, the United States, percentage wise, gives the least of any rich country. As of 2006, the U.S. gave only 0.15%, which is far below the committed goal. Thus the ONE campaign, which is also called "Make Poverty History" Campaign in other parts of the world, is a campaign to mobilize individuals within each country to lobby their governments to commit to these goals that they agreed upon back at the UN Summit in September 2000.
Every year, there is a meeting of the leaders of the 8 richest countries in the world which is commonly known as the G8 summit. The G8 are made up of the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan. Each year the summit meets and reviews issues related to health, law enforcement, labours, economic and social development, energy, environment, foreign affairs, justice and interior, terrorism and trade. One of the more publicized issues more recently has been their commitments to the MGDs and each year there has been improvements to the numbers that have been promised in regards to funding which has been a move in the positive direction towards reaching the MGDs, however there is much more work to be done.
There has been a motto that you may have heard from ONE.org which says, “We’re not asking for your money, we’re asking for your voice” and that is what the campaign has consistently been about. When signing the ONE declaration, you are joining millions of Americans who have already signed in agreement for our government to move closer to the goals they have committed to in ending poverty. At times, we may feel helpless when envisioning what it could take to eradicate poverty in the world and it could seem unattainable, however this is our opportunity to do something rather than nothing.
If you are interested in signing the ONE declaration, please go to: http://www.one.org.
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THE ONE CAMPAIGN
Make Poverty History |
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