This morning Chris Daughtry of the band DAUGHTRY sent an email to all of our new Idol-watching members.

In it, he asked our new poverty-fighters to take their first action by urging the Senate to increase global AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis funding (by supporting the reauthorization of PEPFAR.)

See his email below. And sign the petition if you haven’t already.

Dear ONE Member,

My DAUGHTRY bandmates, Joey Barnes and Josh Steely, and I recently took a break from our tour to visit Kampala, Uganda. It was our first trip to Africa, and it was absolutely amazing.

It’s hard to put in words everything that we saw. We were inspired by the incredible spirit of the people we met—especially of the children—and struggled with the suffering that is part of the day-to-day life for so many.

But it’s not hard to take action. ONE is launching a petition campaign to tell our senators that we want them to support record increases in funding to treat and prevent the spread of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

Please sign ONE’s petition and ask your senators to join us in the fight against these deadly, but treatable diseases.

http://www.one.org/pepfarsenate

It’s pretty cool to know that the lifesaving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that were given out at the clinic we visited are paid for by a program that we are asking our elected officials in Washington to support.

That program is called the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or PEPFAR and, since it was launched in 2004, it has saved millions of lives.

There are a lot of incredible success stories that come from American leadership against AIDS and I hope you’ll check out ONE.org to learn more. For now, I’m only going to throw one stat at you: 1.4 million. That’s the number of people who are on PEPFAR-funded ARVs today across the developing world.

But there is so much more we can do.

That’s why ONE is asking the Senate to increase investments in treatments and prevention strategies that work, from the $15 billion spent during the last five years to $50 billion for the next five.

The toughest moment for us on this trip came when we visited the home of an 18 year-old woman named Jacqueline, who is HIV positive and suffers from TB. Like so many people in Uganda, she is now taking antiretroviral drugs and medicine for her TB, but the side effects have left her unable to work.

This new funding expands the fight with programs that provide microloans and food aid for people in her dire situation.

Ask your senators show their support for American leadership in the fight against HIV/AIDS by co-sponsoring this PEPFAR reauthorization.

http://www.one.org/pepfarsenate

If we can get this thing through the Senate, we’ll be that much closer to preventing millions of new cases of HIV/AIDS, giving AIDS widows and orphans a better future and stopping killers like malaria and TB.

Last night on Idol Gives Back, we played a song called What About Now. The title says it all. There is so much we can do now right now. That’s why it’s an honor for all of us in DAUGHTRY to be a part of ONE, this movement of millions of Americans all working together to save lives and change the world.

From all of us in DAUGHTRY.

Thanks,

Chris Daughtry, ONE Member