Bill & Melinda Gates publish their co-authored Gates Annual Letter today, which this year takes on some of the common myths around global development. So at ONE we decided to tackle a myth that as a campaigning organisation, we often encounter: that one voice can’t change a big issue like extreme poverty.  It’s something I’ve heard so many times, from friends, from members of the public, from colleagues and from cynics: “What can one person really do?” I challenged myself to...
In the 58 years since independence, periods of peace in Sudan have been brief. Today there are new violent clashes unfolding in South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011. While parties meet to discuss a peaceful resolution, this is the story of one man changed forever by the previous civil war, which lasted 22 years and claimed 2 million lives.  Gabriel Bol Deng vividly remembers the first thing he ate when he was in the United States. It was...
Yesterday a new store opened in Cape Town, South Africa – and everything is free. Street Store has captured the imagination of people instantly. Anyone can come and donate clothes and shoes to the pop-up store, they are sorted and displayed, and homeless people can then pick out items they need. Being able to choose clothes that fit, in a style and colour we like is something most of us take for granted.  But living on the streets often takes this...
German photojournalist Mario Gerth has captured the incredible, dramatic landscape of northern Ethiopia in this collection of stunning black and white images. It includes shots taken in the Simien Mountains and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela. Mario trekked more than 350 miles by foot and donkey through one of the Africa’s remotest regions. He found monks praying with 600-year-old Bibles, and farmers and shepherds whose methods haven’t changed in thousands of years. I trekked in these mountains a few years ago, and...
Our guest bloggers today are Blair Glencorse, Executive Director of the Accountability Lab and Nora Rahimian, an organiser who uses the power of music to effect change. Hip Co artists performing at the 2013 Hip Co Festival in Liberia. Photo: Morgana Wingward “If we don’t speak up against the ills in society, who will?” asks Takun J, Liberia’s Hip Co King, in front of thousands of screaming fans at a concert in Monrovia. He then launches into “Police Man” a song about police corruption,...
With the death of Nelson Mandela, we have lost one of the few genuinely world-changing figures of our time. For although seen narrowly, Mandela’s principal achievement – and lifelong goal – was to bring freedom to his own country, his ideals, his language, and the principles for which he stood inspired countless millions far from South Africa, and continued to do so – and this is a key point – in new terrains and with new dreams after South...
As today is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we thought it was a great opportunity to ask ONE members their best advice for activists working towards this goal.  So we posted a question on our Facebook page.  And 287 of you replied. Now our creative team at ONE are good, but even they couldn’t turn that many responses into a graphic for us to share.  So we picked 29 of our favourites, and here’s the result. Whether you’re a self-proclaimed...