Sign up, fight AIDS, end poverty

Did you know there are over one billion people in this world who live on wages of a dollar a day or less? That more than 38 million people in the world (25 million in Africa alone) are infected by HIV/AIDS?

Poverty and AIDS are huge, messy, global problems that seem impossible for one person to solve. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless when thinking about ways to solve them.

But there is something you can do and it literally only takes a few seconds.

Take a moment to sign the One Declaration.

The ONE Campaign derives its name from the belief that allocating an additional one percent of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world's poorest countries. The campaign also calls for debt cancellation, trade reform and anti–corruption measures in a comprehensive package to help Africa and the poorest nations beat AIDS and extreme poverty.

Signing up is free and it’s fast. They don’t want your money and they won’t sell your information to a bunch of telemarketers or spammers. They just want your voice – your pledge, stating that you care about these issues and want to see something done. As of this writing, more than 2.4 million people have signed up and the more people who sign up, the more difficult it’s going to be for our current and future leaders to ignore these problems.

Little by little, everyone can make a difference, but first you have to make your pledge. If only everything were this easy.