Do you remember what you were doing on March 11, 2020? Whether you were watching Tiger King or celebrating Parasite’s Academy Award, that date will probably live in history books for a very long time. That’s because March 11, 2020 was the day that COVID-19 was officially declared a global pandemic. A lot has happened in those two years — from putting blocks of feta into pasta and kicking off the Tokyo Olympics, to schools closing because of lockdowns and...
Women around the world are working hard every day to fight the pandemic. From fighting food insecurity in their communities and inventing crucial tools to fight the pandemic, to using their positions of power to demand change, they’re working to make 2022 the year we end the pandemic. That’s why on this International Women’s Day, we want to introduce you to a few of them. Keep reading to find out! Nomonde Kweza, or “Mama Nomonde” In South Africa, Nomonde Kweza, also known...
Empowering the girls of today can create a better future for everyone, and that’s exactly what Techno Girl is trying to do. Working in collaboration with UNICEF South Africa, Techno Girl is a South African program that supports girls who are interested in pursuing careers in math, science, and technology. The program selects high school girls from disadvantaged communities to take part in mentorships, skills development workshops, and job shadowing in the STEM field. “Being part of Techno Girl and...
Every year, Groundhog Day is when we find out if we’ll be living through an extended winter. But what about an extended pandemic? This Groundhog Day, our progress towards ending COVID-19 in 2022 is shaping up to look a lot like 2020 and 2021. The inaction of world leaders to come up with a global plan to defeat COVID has stuck us in an endless loop of new COVID-19 variants, case surges, school closures, and economic aftershocks. Here are...
If your social media feed or city streets were flooded with calls to #EndThePandemic once and for all, then you’re familiar with our Global Week of Action. From 15-22 January, ONE, our dedicated Global Activists, and our partners called on leaders of rich countries to finally make 2022 the year they end the pandemic and vaccinate the world. Here’s what happened. Taking over billboards and social media All week long ONE and it’s partners took over billboards in France, London and Berlin, plastered...
Omicron has raised a lot of questions about what comes next in the pandemic. What will future variants look like? Will this just become like the seasonal flu soon? Should we all just learn to live with COVID-19 and all the disruptions? Two years in, we all know it’s impossible to predict the direction of COVID-19. But we’ve tackled some of the myths and misconceptions about what might come after Omicron. Myth 1. Omicron isn’t really that bad. The highly transmissible Omicron...
Did you know that #Omicron and Transformers (yes, those Transformers) have a lot in common? Omicron is the pandemic’s latest threat against us. And by hoarding the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, world leaders are allowing variants like Omicron to continue to grow and spread. That means Omicron may be the latest variant to spread around the world — but it certainly won’t be the last. Learn more and demand that leaders of rich countries share vaccine doses to end the pandemic...
In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege and honor to meet American presidents and leaders from all over the world, but Archbishop Desmond Tutu commanded more authority than any person I have ever known. His was borne not of faith, nor of religious hierarchy or the status of the positions he held; it emerged from who he was. He was fierce, and never hesitated to call out injustice, whether to comrade or foe. He was fair – always willing and...
The last year has been an interesting one, to say the least. With the first promises of COVID-19 vaccines to the rise of new variants like Delta and Omicron, 2021 has seen a lot of ups and downs. As we begin to wind down and enter the holiday season, we want to recap the year for you. But we know you’re all sick of hearing pandemic news and would rather just hear holiday songs. So here’s 2021 re-told through some holiday...
Two decades ago, HIV/AIDS infections were doubling each year and almost 4,000 people died daily from the virus. Since then, the global response has come a long way and serves as a model of how to address a public health crisis. AIDS-related deaths have dropped by more than half since their peak in the early 2000s. And now, 27.5 million people have access to life-saving treatments. But COVID-19 has severely impacted a lot of that progress, as the world battles twin...