PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO READ THIS- IT IS IMPORTANT!

If you have not already done so, please sign the declaration to support the ONE Campaign!

On July 6th (this Wednesday), the G8 meeting of world leaders will take place. The G8, or the ‘Group of Eight’ Summit is an annual gathering of leaders from the world’s eight wealthiest and most powerful countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States). This summer, these leaders will gather in Scotland to decide the fate of an entire generation living on less than ONE dollar a day. On July 6th - 8th, President Bush and other G8 leaders will discuss the major social, political and economic conditions that leave nearly ONE billion people living in extreme poverty – nearly half of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa. With your support and voice, President Bush and other world leaders will know just how important these issues are, and together as ONE, we can Make Poverty History.

We are so lucky to grow up in the United States, but others are not so fortunate. Here are some facts about poverty in Africa:

-In Africa, people are trying to survive each day on what Americans spend on one cup of coffee.

-22 million girls are not able to get an education.

-Only $16 will pay for a child’s tuition for 1 year, including their uniform and books.

-The cost of 1 soda and 1 sandwich in the US would pay for 6 months of medicine to cure a child of TB.

-For dinner, the people only have a few strips of old bread.

-In the US, we have 250 varieties of bottled water—3 million people in Africa do not have any clean water to drink at all.

-Our pharmacies have 25 different kinds of cough syrup alone—mothers in Africa cannot even get 1 spoonful of medicine to help their sick child.

-Given medicine, the success rate of Africans taking it is almost 100% - only 70% Americans actually take the medicine they are given.

And the facts and comparisons go on and on....

The United States gives less than 1% of their budget to foreign aid. We are the richest country in the world… don’t you think we can do a little better than that? Yes, we have poverty here in the US as well, but the poverty in Africa is on a completely different, bigger scale.

The children over there value their education greatly, but most of them cannot get the money, or are running out of money for their education, which only costs $16. That is the cost of 1 CD here, for example. Many of them are orphans, hungry, and often sick with illnesses such as AIDS or TB, yet they study as if their life depends on it. We should be grateful for everything that we have in life because many people in the world are not so lucky.

We are not asking for your money. We are asking for your voice.

Please click here to sign the declaration.

“WE BELIEVE that in the best American tradition of helping others help themselves, now is the time to join with other countries in a historic pact for compassion and justice to help the poorest people of the world overcome AIDS and extreme poverty. WE RECOGNIZE that a pact including such measures as fair trade, debt relief, fighting corruption and directing additional resources for basic needs – education, health, clean water, food, and care for orphans – would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the poorest countries, at a cost equal to just one percent more of the US budget. WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all.”

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