ONE member Melissa Sweeney landed a terrific letter to the editor in yesterday’s western Pennsylvania’s Lebanon Daily News. In her letter, Melissa underscores the work of people of faith through efforts like ONE Sabbath, to lift up their voices and take action in the fight against extreme poverty. Check it out, below:

February 12, 2009

Group looking to act as ONE

Editor:

One of the most basic callings of my Christian faith is to serve those in need. Lending a kind hand turns faith into action.

Nearly all faiths share a similar calling of compassion and service. The Torah teaches that we should care for the poor through acts of compassion and loving kindness. Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew that how we treat “the least among us” is the measure of how we treat God. Zakat, serving the suffering of humanity, is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Congregations and believers across Pennsylvania have a unique opportunity to channel their energy into the movement to save lives and combat extreme poverty around the world. An effort called ONE Sabbath aims to raise awareness within communities of faith about the challenges of global poverty and provide resources for congregations to respond meaningfully to these challenges.

ONE Sabbath, an effort by the anti-poverty group ONE, gives local congregations and believers opportunities to respond to such global challenges as AIDS, malaria, lack of clean water and children out of school, and informs congregations about the proven solutions that can save lives and transform impoverished communities.

The ONE Sabbath effort, which includes Jewish and Christian congregations and encompasses ONE Sadaqa in the Muslim community and ONE Seva in the Hindu community, will run through the first 100 days of President Barack Obama’s administration, a critical time when America’s role in the world and our foreign policy and budget priorities will be set.

ONE Sabbath aims to turn our faith into action for the 12,500 people who will lose their lives today from AIDS, malaria or tuberculosis in the poorest parts of the world; action for the 1 billion people who struggle to live without access to clean water; action for the millions of children who, when the sun sets in Africa tonight, will go to bed without a mother or father due to preventable, treatable diseases.

Today we have the technology and the proven, effective solutions to save millions of lives. Malaria can be stopped with something as simple as a $6 bed net. Dehydration, which unbelievably kills 5,000 children each day, can be treated with a hydration tablet that costs pennies.

The solutions have arrived. We’re waiting for the moment we all say, “We will not allow people to die from diseases we can prevent. We will not allow children to die in a world of plenty from a lack of food. No longer.”

Through ONE Sabbath, we have the chance to get hundreds of congregations and thousands of voices speaking out and taking action. Visit ONE.org/ONESabbath to get your congregation engaged.

-Melissa Sweeney, ONE Member, Jonestown