The Samford Crimson

Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: Expressions

Media Credit: Bob Miller Ana, age nine, walks the dirt roads of her home town in the outskirts of Reynosa, Mexico. Known as the "Canal" region, these streets are the playing grounds of dozens of children whose families live in modest housing lining the rugged terrain.

Young people have played a critical role in every major movement throughout history. Students are able to create awareness and change that no other group of people can.

For the first time in history, this generation has the tools, technology and resources to end extreme poverty and yet, a billion people still live on less than a dollar a day. America can help stop 2.3 million Africans from dying of AIDS each year, prevent 12 million children from becoming AIDS orphans and can put 104 million children in school around the world. One person can make a difference.

"I refuse to believe that we cannot make a difference," senior sports medicine major Emily Whitworth said. "Every small thing can make a big difference."

There is an effort by Americans known as the ONE Campaign. The belief is that one by one, American citizens can fight to eradicate global AIDS and extreme poverty. The ONE campaign works to engage people in every phase of life - from church congregations to concert audiences to college campuses.
"It's students' responsibility to raise awareness as privileged and educated individuals. Yet the first step is to become knowledgeable on what's going on in the world around us," Hunter Pugh, senior economics major, said.

Currently, the biggest aim is geared towards college students - this campaign is known as the ONE Campus Challenge. Across the nation various campuses are competing against one another to prove their effectiveness and creativity in fighting global poverty and AIDS.

The challenge is to build the will among college students to fight poverty. There are various means for gaining points that will result in rewards. Some of the ways of gaining points are sending letters to Congress, dressing the school mascot in a ONE T-shirt for a football game and gathering for a meeting to discuss social justice issues.

The rewards will be given in three stages: in January ONE will fly representatives from the top 100 schools to Washington, D.C., for an elite three-day conference, in February ONE will present the top ten schools with grants to fund their own poverty-fighting programs and in the end there is a grand prize for the campus that proves to be the greatest world changer.

Continued...

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