Fighting to end poverty

from Arlington Advocate

By Nicole Laskowski

Arlington, Mass. - In October 2005, John Abdulla, a graduate of Arlington High School, had one of those rare life-changing moments. During a U2 concert at the Fleet Center in Boston, Bono mentioned the ONE campaign, an international organization aimed at raising awareness and ending global poverty and diseases in the poorest countries. Before that, Abdulla didn’t think much about poverty or malaria or AIDS or even activism, for that matter.

“Knowing how much we spend on the war in Iraq and how little we spend on this other cause that could save more lives,” Abdulla said. It was enough to make him stop and think about how he could help end the battle with poverty.

So, when his professor assigned a research project in his writing class at Curry College in Milton, Abdulla decided to take a closer look at extreme poverty, or what is defined as living on less than $1 a day, specifically in Africa.

“There are many different stats regarding the issue, like any other issue, but the one that really stays with me is that 30,000 children die every day from extreme poverty,” he said. “That's one every three seconds. It amazes me. And the worst part is that they are all preventable deaths.”

But he didn’t write a paper. Instead Abdulla, a communications major who is hoping to get into filmmaking, put together a seven-minute video that juxtaposes images of starving children and adults in Africa with statistics he happened across during his research. He called the video “The African Dream: Ending Extreme Poverty.” Bono’s voice fades in and asks for people to get involved in the ONE campaign.

“The creation process helped me to become so passionate,” Abdulla said.

On Oct. 17, 2006, the day set aside for standing against poverty, Abdulla decided to gather people together and show his video. Only three people came, but Abdulla saw how his video affected them and decided he needed to do more. Later that year, Abdulla, along with a handful of other interested students, decided to launch a ONE chapter at Curry College.

“It was opening my own mind and creating an awareness of others instead of just myself,” said Abdulla.

He continued to show his video to anyone he could get to watch it, and, through word-of-mouth, more and more people started showing up. Abdulla was then introduced to another Curry College student, Peter Nhiany. Nihany is one of a group of Sudanese refugees collectively known as the Lost Boys of Sudan.

Together, the ONE campaign at Curry College began raising money to build a well in Sudan.

When the ONE campaign launched its ONE campus challenge, a national challenge to help raise awareness about global poverty and disease, Abdulla wanted to get involved. Each event they held or awareness act they performed in the name of the campaign earned the school points as they competed across with more than 700 universities across the country. Representatives from the top 100 schools were flown to Washington D.C. for the Power 100 Summit. Curry College, with just 4,000 students, fluctuated in standing, but never dipped below the top 100.

At the beginning of January, Abdulla traveled to Washington, D.C. where he met with 99 other student leaders from across the country. He spent three days visiting with politicians such as Newt Gingrich and economic experts like Gene Sperling, the economic studies and director of the center for universal education at the council on foreign relations.

“The more I’ve learned, the more inescapable it’s become,” said Abdulla.

He returned from his trip energized to do even more, to continue with the ONE campaign challenge and hopefully earn the $1,000 Curry College could earn if they remain within the top 100 schools. That could mean more money for a well in Sudan.

“I know there are about 2.4 million people in the country involved in this campaign, but the meeting reinforces that we’re acting together on this,” he said.

And someday, he said, he hopes he’ll go to Africa and turn his desire for filmmaking into activism as well.