Bloomington group joins world hunger battle

The ONE Campaign, a lobbying super-group which focuses on fighting global AIDS and extreme poverty, is focusing pressure on the leaders of the world's most powerful countries to "make poverty history" at the upcoming Group of Eight summit.\nBrad Pitt, Nelson Mandela and U2's Bono, among other celebrities, are showing their support of the campaign, while local citizens are actively raising awareness of this cause.\nThe ONE Campaign consolidates the efforts of various organizations concerned with fighting hunger, poverty and global AIDS and focuses their collective strength to send a direct message to legislators and government leaders.\nDan O'Neill, graduate advisor and active member of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, said that the aggregate force of The ONE Campaign is important because "it's the realization that fighting HIV/AIDS is about more than throwing money at the problem."\nO'Neill said that government leaders will not take actions against global AIDS or poverty unless there is a clear demand from citizens asking for change. \n"It starts at the grass-roots level. It starts with taking care of the basic bare necessities," he said, explaining that the basic needs of people in places like sub-Saharan Africa must be met before they can help themselves improve their societal conditions.\n"Not having water, for example, lends itself to women having to spend all day going to various water sources, so if they're doing that they can't have an education." \nNext week George Bush, Tony Blair and six other leaders of the world's most powerful countries will meet and talk about global issues. Blair, who is hosting the event in Gleneagles, Scotland, is pushing for his fellow leaders to focus on the "challenges of Africa and climate changes." \nTony Blair, in his welcome address on the G8 2005 Web site explained the importance of focusing on Africa.\n"Africa is a wonderful, diverse continent with an extraordinary, energetic and resilient people. But it is also plagued with problems so serious that no continent could tackle them on its own."\nKunal Suryawala, co-director of the IU--Bloomington chapter of SGAC explained that The ONE Campaign is using the G8 summit as an opportunity to have its voice heard. \n"The ONE Campaign's goal for the G8 is to get one million plus signatures and have them delivered to President Bush by a celebrity, asking him to allocate an additional one percent of the US Budget, roughly 25 billion dollars, to the humanitarian cause fighting AIDS and Poverty," said Suryawala.\nKaren Grooms, local member of RESULTS, a group that lobbies against hunger, said that one of the goals of The ONE Campaign is to inform people in developed countries about the low quality of life in which other people live. \n"(ONE) seeks to make people aware that one billion people live on less than a dollar a day," she said, adding that many of the diseases which cause poverty in the third world, like Tuberculosis and Polio, can be cured at little expense. \n"TB is a major killer in the third world. It attacks people in the prime of the 'breadwinning years,'" Grooms said, adding 12 dollars can fund the entire gamut of treatment for a single person with TB. \nGrooms stressed that The ONE Campaign is not about raising money. \n"It's not a fund-raising campaign, it's about raising awareness," she said, adding that such awareness can be directed at public official who can enact change. "(ONE) is trying to shift public opinion, and shift political power. It's about looking at these problems -- there are simple \nsolutions." \nFor more information on The ONE Campaign go to www.ONE.org.