I’ve been hugely impressed by the reach of The ONE Campaign in recent months. I’m originally from New Hampshire, and it seems that nary a presidential candidate comes into my state without being “banded” by ONE and asked to talk about the complicated issues surrounding global poverty and disease. Approaching these leaders with such topics is how change can begin from the top – in government halls and meetings between international governments.

In FORGE, we’ve decided to mimic the sentiment on the ground, where change is also occurring. Whenever FORGE hires a new refugee staff member to run FORGE projects in the camps, they’re given a ONE band as a reminder that our domestic staff may be young Americans and they may be refugees in exile, but in our mission for peace, prosperity, and health, we are working as ONE.

The gesture goes a long way. After handing out the bands at a recent All-FORGE staff meeting, many of our new staff members came up to me and held out their newly-decorated wrist. “Yes, Nicholas,” they said.
“We work with you as ONE.”

Take a look at the attached picture. It shows the wrists of Kjerstin Erickson, FORGE’s Founder & Executive Director and Kashinda Lwika Zaina, a member of FORGE staff in Mwange Refugee Camp. Two people, two continents, two histories, two skin colors, and ONE shared vision. And a conspicuous tattoo.

-Nicholas Talarico, FORGE