This morning, 1.2 million of the world’s poorest people took a life-saving pill because of U.S. support. That's a group of people, roughly the population of New Hampshire, receiving AIDS treatment because of initiatives that ONE members like you helped make possible with letters and phone calls to Congress. A quick call today will help ensure these initiatives receive the necessary funding to stay on track to meet their goals.

In honor of World AIDS Day, the Global Fund and
 PEPFAR announced this morning that together they’ve more than doubled the number of people receiving AIDS treatment since the last World AIDS Day. This incredible progress is part of larger global effort to provide treatment to 9.8 million people by 2010.

But for that plan to work, they need your voice. Make a quick call (1-800-786-2663) and ask your Representatives in Congress to fully fund the President's $2.8 billon request for PEPFAR and the Senate’s $700 million life-saving funding for the Global Fund.

I encourage you to read the article and take a look at the amazing before and after pictures in the latest issue of Time Magazine that follow the transformational impact these pills had on 8 year old Bokang Rakabaele in Lesotho, Africa. These pills not only treat disease, but enable people to contribute to society and lead normal lives. Thanks to these treatments people with AIDS can live for decades today.

The Global Fund and PEPFAR represent one of the most direct relationships between dollars spent and lives saved in the US Federal budget. Today, you and thousands of other ONE members in homes, churches, universities, and offices across the country can make sure your elected leaders know that these initiatives are a priority.

Make a quick call (1-800-786-2663) and ask your Representatives in Congress to fully fund the President's $2.8 billon request for PEPFAR and the Senate's $700 million life-saving funding for the Global Fund.

November 16th

Right now, three human beings are attempting the impossible – running 4,000 miles across the Sahara Desert to raise awareness for the 1.2 billion people around the world who don’t have access to clean water. They will run 50 miles a day - for around 80 days - an amazing feat of human will and endurance.

Get updates on the run and join me in the fight for clean water

Earlier this spring, my friends at the ONE Campaign and DATA brought me to Zambia and South Africa, where I witnessed extreme poverty and the role that clean drinking water plays in getting millions out of danger. I learned that a child dies every 15 seconds due to diseases from dirty water.

Upon my return, I wanted to do something.

Through some friends, I learned about three men who will undertake a quest so amazing and symbolic that it could do an immense amount of good for Africans in extreme poverty. In a bold expedition that has never been attempted - 3 men, from 3 nations will run from the Atlantic coast of Senegal, through Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Libya, to the Red Sea in Egypt.

My colleagues, including James Moll - a great filmmaker who won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1999 - are documenting and promoting the expedition in our project called "Running the Sahara". As part of this effort, we've started a charitable initiative called H2O Africa, in a large part to raise awareness for clean water programs on the continent.

Get updates on the run and join me in the fight for clean water

One of the reasons I got involved in the project was because of the day I spent with a 14 year-old girl in Zambia earlier this year. I walked two miles with her to the closest water source, a well outside her village. I asked her if she wanted to stay in her village when she grew up, and her face exploded into a huge smile. The translator said to me, "She is being very shy...she says that she wants to move to big city - Lusaka - she wants to be a nurse." And it was clear to me at that moment that if this well were not there for her, she would never even be able to entertain the concept of planning for the future - she would have been trying to survive just for that day.

This one well was giving hope to thousands of people in the surrounding area, and this hope translates into something concrete - that girl can now fulfill a dream to become a nurse, and can become an economic contributor to the Zambian economy.

Running the Sahara is happening NOW. These guys are there and they are going for it. And we want the world to sit up and take notice. These guys are my heroes, and I want to do whatever I can to support them and their mission.

Please join me

Thank you,

Matt Damon, ONE Member

P.S. Stay tuned! Next week ONE is sending a small team to Mali to catch up with the runners. The team will upload video and blog reports about the progress of the expedition!

Mr. and Mrs. Ted Neelands of Fredericksburg, Virginia, are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Miss Kaylee Virginia Neelands, to Mr. Casey David York, Jr. of Bridgewater, New Jersey, son of Victoria York and Brad Tomlinson, also of Bridgewater.

Mr. York and Miss Neelands are sailors in the United States Navy. The couple met while attending Electronics Technician "A" School in Great Lakes, Illinois.

Mr. York is currently completing "C" school at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, while Miss Neelands completes her "C" school at Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Mississippi.

A fall wedding is planned.