VANITY FAIR NOMINATES ONE CAMPAIGN

What does Agnes Nyamayarwo, a Ugandan nurse, have in common with Shayne Moore, an Evangelical soccer mom from the Midwest? As volunteers with the One Campaign, they understand the fact that hundreds of millions living in poverty and tens of millions living with H.I.V./AIDS is simply not acceptable. Co-founded by Bono, One: The Campaign to Make Poverty History is a coalition of more than a hundred of the world’s most respected advocacy and humanitarian groups. It is also a collective of American actors, activists, politicians, religious leaders, students, teachers, and parents that now numbers 2.4 million and is growing by the day. Supporters are buying the T-shirts and bracelets—single acts that can save single lives. They are donating their time to help bring medical care, clean water, and education to those who would otherwise become statistics or lead fruitless lives. The name One has a very practical significance: by signing the “declaration” on one.org, citizens are urging our government to dig into its pocket for another 1 percent of its budget to solve the crisis. One also means one person. Nyamayarwo, who is living with H.I.V. and who lost her husband and six-year-old son to the disease, knows that one person is always the most important person to someone else.

EVGENIA PERETZ