ONE Members’ Stories: Lisa from Chicago, IL

Sep 2nd, 2006 7:00 PM EST
By Virginia Simmons

I am a young wife and mother of five year old twins. Reaching out to

those who are under-resourced has always been important to me, but recently it hit close to home.

Last year my husband was diagnosed with a serious illness and without

the proper surgery, treatments and medicine, the disease would have been fatal.

I started thinking about all the people who have treatable diseases

but are dying because medicines are not available to them. I started thinking: what if that was my family, my husband, my children? What if we weren’t able

to get the treatment my husband needed to save his life?

Thankfully we live in a country where we have access to these things,

and fortunately his life was spared. Millions of people are not so fortunate, and now for me, this is personal.

Every time I see a picture of a child without a parent, I think, that

could have been my children. Every time I hear a story about a wife losing her husband and having to raise her children alone, I think, that could have been

me.

There is a much bigger disease that the world needs to address here,

it’s the disease of indifference, and to make poverty history we need to make this personal.

-Lisa Yonan, member of the ONE Campaign, Chicago IL

Check back over the next couple of weeks for more ONE members’ stories.

And if you haven’t already told us how you first found your commitment to eliminate global AIDS and extreme poverty, send us your story.