The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘We can all play a part in ending poverty and HIV within decade’
MERCY MOUNTHAWK TY STUDENT DIANA NAGLE WRITES OF HER DELIGHT ON BEING SELECTED AS A ‘ONE’ YOUTH AMBASSADOR, OF JUST 25 FROM AN ENTRY OF 5,00O, TO CHAMPION GLOBAL JUSTICE
AS a passionate U2 fan since before I can even remember I’m thrilled at my selection as a youth ambassador for the campaign Bono set up in 2000 to tackle global poverty and disease.
ONE is the international advocacy and lobbying organisation he set up 17 years ago, and which already has more than 7million members world wide.
Its aim is to end extreme poverty and preventable diseases like HIV, TB and malaria in the developing world, but especially in Africa, by the year 2030. Bono is nothing if not ambitious, but what might seem like an unrealistically lofty target to most people is actually an attainable goal.
In the time since One was established the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide has halved. And in the same space of time 10.7 million people living in sub-Saharan Africa today have access to life-saving AIDS medication, up from only 52,000 in 2002. Malaria deaths have been cut by 66% since 2000,and 60 million more children across sub-Saharan Africa are now going to school than did in 2000.
I will join with 24 others from across the country to build support at local level for international development. I’m delighted to become a ONE Youth Ambassador and can’t wait to start campaigning about these issues that I believe should be at the forefront of all our minds. I’m really proud of Ireland’s long history of helping others and the work we do fighting extreme poverty globally, but I do believe we should be doing more.
What can we do to tackle such a broad issue? One of our key goals this year is to get the ODA (overseas development assistance) percentage raised towards meetings the UN’s standards of 0.7%. Currently standing at 0.36%, it is failing to meet that requirement.
As Bono says: ‘We’re not looking for your money, we’re looking for your voice’. One is not a charity. It’s all about advocacy and encouraging ordinary citizens to ‘use your voice change the world’.
In this role I really hope to play my part in driving awareness of the positive impact Ireland has on the world and to help keep momentum around ONE’s global campaigns. To that end I will be looking for the support of our TDs and community when it comes to signing petitions and supporting related campaigns, like ‘Poverty is Sexist’.
In the developing world girls are 50% less likely to receive education than males leaving them with less of a chance to improving the grinding circumstances of their lives.
Education is the key lever out of poverty. Ensuring all girls in low income countries leave school with basic reading skills could potentially cut extreme poverty globally by as much as 12%. Educated women are 50% less likely to immunize their children, and when a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2-3 fewer children.
This is why it’s the single most important task to get public support for as it’s so important on the road to making extreme poverty history. As well as highlighting the good Irish aid does globally, we will also be calling for more action on girls’ education and for Ireland to continue leading in supporting the world’s poorest countries.
As the Interim Europe director of One, said: “Ireland has always been home to the greatest global citizens, and ONE’s Youth Ambassadors are part of the great Irish tradition of activism.
“I am excited about their journey this year – campaigning for a fairer world, mobilising in their communities, demanding that the government and the TDs hear this generation’s call to end extrem poverty.”