I extend my thanks as well..

I have been hosting a number of banners relating to the ONE campaign on my blog. The ONE campaign along with the Live 8 concerts did a great job in increasing awareness of the state of poverty in Africa. This pressurized the G8 to declare unprecedented aid packages for Africa. This is a message to everone who was a part of this campaign in any way.

Dear Friend:

This is a big thank you to all 1.5 million of you who joined together as ONE to do something extraordinary.

From the 500,000 letters you sent to President Bush to Live 8 in Philadelphia to the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, you called on eight men to do more to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty, and they heard your call. In Scotland this past Friday, overcoming the shadow of a tragic day in London, President Bush joined G8 leaders in an unprecedented deal to cancel debts and double aid to Africa.

For African nations fighting poverty and corruption, this means a $25 billion increase in aid and wiping out 100% of their debts. With this funding, Africa can halve deaths from malaria, put millions of children into school, and 10 million people across the world will have access to lifesaving AIDS drugs. Behind each of these numbers is one person, one life that will be changed forever.

This is what we were aiming for. For once, set aside the atrocities done by the G8 member countries, the wars that they brought upon the world, the people they killed, and the generations they tarnished - this is something which only they had the power to do - and we had the power to motivate.

For the first time ever, everyday Americans(and non-Americans) like you joined together to take a seat at the negotiating table, asking the world's most powerful leaders to do more to help the world's poorest people. Because you signed the ONE Declaration, wore the white band and forwarded emails to friends about ONE, you made a huge step toward making poverty history. We've come so far and still have far to go.

Keep the momentum going, email 3 friends about ONE today.

This agreement is a real victory for Africa - but promises made of words will only become promises for a generation if we keep watching, asking and acting. Much more needs to be done in Washington DC to turn these commitments into lifesaving programs, and the world must take new steps to make trade fair. More meetings will take place this year in New York and Hong Kong where a comprehensive debt-aid-trade deal can be reached and end global AIDS and extreme poverty in our time.

We can be that great generation. As ONE, let's keep up the positive pressure and make 2005 the year we joined together to make history.

Thank you,

The ONE Team

Keep the momentum going indeed.