“I grew up in England in a relatively poor but adequate home, and with the benefit of good health and a great education…Even as I took my Christian faith seriously, I failed to make the connections between God’s call to love and grace, and His call to justice and mercy, until the horrors of extreme poverty finally impinged on my consciousness. I wonder why it took so long? Perhaps being comfortable, and being satisfied with religious busy work, became all-consuming. We are all somewhat self-centered after all aren’t we? In any case, my route into beginning to understand the crisis of poverty started with learning about microfinance, and the possibilities for permanent poverty relief through micro enterprise. As a technology executive in a large financial services company, this appealed to me, and made me start to realize I could actually contribute to a solution…The exciting next question for me, as I approach retirement, is how can I apply all the gifts and experience God has given me so that I can give back some of the many years of inactivity of my earlier life?”

-Graham Seel, member of The ONE Campaign, Clayton, CA

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“Growing up in a wealthy suburb, helping others rarely crossed my mind. Everyone around me had everything they needed and poverty was a foreign concept to me. Last summer, my perspective shifted drastically. I was part of a team that spent the summer teaching orphans in Uganda. Meeting all of these amazing children whose lives have been torn apart by AIDS and poverty opened my eyes to the way the rest of world lives. How can we, the wealthiest people in the world, turn our backs on these beautiful, wonderful children? Why are we entitled to such riches when they have nothing? I pray every night for those children I hope that other Americans will realize just how vital it is that we help them. They don’t dream of riches. They simply want to know that they will have food to eat and parents to care for them. Surely with our many blessings, we can help them see their dreams come true.”
 
-Melissa Gilbert, member of The ONE Campaign, Atlanta, Georgia 

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“When I was 17, I wanted to do something to expand my worldview beyond the horizons of middle-American privilege. I was a deeply religious person and, in my youthful zeal, I decided to visit a missionary in Zimbabwe. Ten days after my high school graduation I flew to southern Africa and worked at a bush-hospital for 5 months. I fell in love with the Shona culture and was heart-broken by their plight. In Zimbabwe, over 50% of their population is HIV positive. Countless numbers of those affected are heterosexual, monogamous married mothers. I saw first hand how indiscriminate this epidemic really is. It is a tragedy for anyone to have AIDS (regardless of gender or orientation), but it is a nightmare for mothers who have children to take care of. I am now older and have matured a great deal since those days, but I still have deep love for the Shona people and have tried to financially support that hospital for 15 years now. But much more can be done. I believe that America has the power to make a real advance against the fight against global AIDS. So many of us care; the ONE campaign allows us to speak with a single voice. We must demand more from ourselves, but unity is the first step.”

-Anthony Le Donne, member of The ONE Campaign, Sebastopol, CA

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We just emailed you asking for your story, wanting to learn more about how you first found your commitment to eliminate global AIDS and extreme poverty.  The responses are coming in much faster than we can get through them. You’ve overwhelmed us.

Below is a submission from Julie in Los Angeles:
 
“I have a little boy who just turned 4. When he’s hungry, he comes to me and tells me what he wants to eat. If he wants macaroni and cheese, I make it. If he wants a peanut butter sandwich, I make it. If he wants a KitKat bar, I tell him no – he’s only allowed candy once a week. I have the option to choose his food and the privilege of always having food for him, and I think every mother should have that privilege. To have my baby tell me he was hungry and have nothing to give him would be unbearable. I would like to spare every mother that feeling, because hunger is a need that every mother should be able to fulfill, without exception, no matter where she lives in the world. That’s why I participate.”
 
Check back to here each day for the next two weeks for many more ONE members’ stories.