I am very impressed and appreciate the help and the efforts that these famous people have made to save human lives. These famous people are contributing and saving lives in Africa!I feel humbled by their efforts and I applaud them.
The brainchild of Bono and Bobby Shriver was launched in the US on Friday, it encourages shoppers to buy the ‘red’ branded goods from retailers, which in turn allows the manufacturers and suppliers to donate a percentage of the sale/profit towards Aids via a UN backed support agency called Global Fund. This campaign was launched in Britain earlier in the year and has been very successful with a reported $10 million dollars (US) having been raised so far. The battle against AIDs, malaria and tuberculosis has been the focus of many helping agencies that are in Africa. These diseases are the major cause of death of the people in these developing nations. The Global Fund was established in 2002 as means to channel government and private sector financial support into the region. The ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History that was launched in 2005 by Bono, now has more than two million members including eleven aid and non profit groups working towards this goal. This current campaign will work alongside the ONE Campaign in striving to help the people who need it most and to make the world a better place.
This iniative will see more money trickling through to where it is needed the most. A host of companies is joining together to support the fight against poverty, Apple has offered $10 from each sale of the new red coloured iPod nano’s, as well as some of the money from the itunes $25 red gift card, Motorola has a red cellphone that will raise money for this cause, The Gap has jeans and red tee shirts, Giorgio Armani is offering a collection of clothes and accessories, Converse has a special limited edition footwear range to add to the list, even American Express has jumped on board and is offering a red card that will support the cause. Oprah Winfrey’s viewers were given a look at the products that are supporting this cause and the prominence that this show has will undoubtedly help promote the items even more. Other celebrities that have put themselves forward to help promote the products and cause, these famous people are Kanye West, Mary j Blige, Don Cheadle, Penelope Cruz and Christy Turlington.
"The idea is simple, the products are sexy and people live instead of die," Bono said in a statement. "When you buy a Red product, the company gives money to buy pills that will keep someone in Africa alive."
"We want to change history by writing its future," said Shriver, a Santa Monica, California, city councilman.
''We've moved from the philanthropy budgets to the marketing budgets, and guess what, there's no comparison in size,'' Bono said. ``We now have some of the most creative people in commerce -- Steve Jobs, the marketing people at Gap and Motorola -- all working for the world's poor. That is so so cool.''
Bob Geldof has done much work in this arena too, creating world wide awareness of the poor and impoverished nations and following it through by raising money to better their situation. This seems to be a new generation of ‘superstar’, the ones who have a social consciousness. Even George Clooney has found the troubles of Dafur too much to bear and is pressurizing his government to lobby the UN to step in and save the people of Dafur.
I am very impressed and appreciate the help and the efforts that these famous people have made to save lives. I feel humbled by their efforts and I applaud them.
