story image 1 Photo by Rob Davis Freshman Bernie Johnson signs the One Campaign petition on the Union Green Friday, July 15, 2005.
FSUnited brings ONE Campaign to FSU
Benefit aimed to bring awareness to students
by Lauren Walleser
July 18, 2005
FSUnited presented a benefit for the ONE Campaign, a national effort to join Americans together to fight global AIDS and poverty, last friday on the Union Green.
The campaign has become largely publicized recently in light of the G8 summit, which took place from July 6 to July 8 in Scotland. Members of the ONE Campaign worked to put pressure on President George W. Bush and the other leaders who met at the summit to pass more aggressive legislation for helping poor countries, especially those in Africa.
"Every three seconds, a child dies from poverty. That's a big issue here, because we don't really think about other countries or Africa, because that is like another world to us," FSU student Tymerial Mckenzie, who assisted FSU student Sheena Payne in organizing the event, said. "We are trying to show our leaders that we are concerned about this. We aren't asking for money or donations or care packages. We just want people to be conscious of what is going on in the world."
Free food and entertainment was available on the Union Green as groups like the Progressive Student Assembly, Student Government Association, and Theta Nu Xi Multicultural Sorority, Inc. gave out information on world issues related to the Campaign. FSUnited also had volunteers asking students to sign petitions that would be sent to President Bush to let him know of students' concern about the issues of poverty and AIDS. In exchange for signing the petition, students received a bracelet from the ONE Campaign.
"As college students, we think we are broke, but we are really rich compared to them," Mckenzie said. "95% of the people who have AIDS are in developing countries in Africa and Asia. We just want to push our leaders to do something about this."
The ONE Campaign was originated by a number of groups, including Bread for the World, CARE, DATA, International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, Oxfam America, Plan USA, Save the Children US, World Concern, World Vision, and is supported by InterAction. The Campaign has been supported by celebrity spokespersons such as Bono of U2, Brad Pitt, and basketball star Dikembe Mutombo.
For more information on the ONE Campaign, visit
www.ONE.org.story here