No, I am not talking about the Three Dog Night song or the Purina food, ONE is a organization that aims to fight poverty and disease around the world, but particularly in Africa. Africa is a place hit hard by disease, especially diseases that could easily be prevented.
ONE began in 2002 when Bono of U2, Sir Bob Geldof, Bobby Shriver, Jamie Drummond, and Lucy Matthew founded DATA (debt, AIDS, trade, Africa). This organization was developed to reduce Africa’s debt, help fight its poverty, provide AIDS treatment and prevention for its people, and end unfair trade rules. DATA had offices worldwide including Washington D.C., and London. In 2004, other anti-poverty organizations joined to form ONE. ONE, along with Global Call to Action Against Poverty, succeeded in getting a pledge from those attending the 2005 G8 Summit. The pledge would direct an additional $25 billion in aid to Africa by 2010. In 2008, DATA and ONE joined to increase and compliment their strengths on the fight against extreme poverty.
Since then, ONE has worked with African activists and policy makers to try to improve the future of Africa. There are currently over 2.5 million ONE member. One thing ONE doesn’t do is ask for money from you – ONE is strictly around to try to make world leaders accountable for commitment they have made to fight poverty and to campaign for better policies, more aid, and trade reform. As their web site says, “we’re not asking for your money, we’re asking for your voice.”
Some of the past campaigns ONE has been a part of are:
It’s Time to Invest in Agriculture, in which ONE asked senators to support the President’s global agricultural investments in order to try to end worldwide hunger.
Water for the World, in which ONE tried to get Senator Paul Simon’s act (which hoped to bring clean water to needy countries) through the Committee on Foreign Relations.
On the Record, in which ONE got nine leading presidential candidates to state in detail what their plans were to deal with global poverty and preventable disease.