I am not always successful in involving people in ways that they can help our Sister City/country or Africa generally, but I do NOT let that stop me. I think of all those people in Africa who NEED us to remember them and try to find new allies to help make their lives better. THAT IS WHAT KEEPS ME MOTIVATED.
Truthfully, in my seriousness and my devotion to Africa's Future, I AM VERY SIMILAR TO BONO. When one door closes to me in my organizing efforts, I simply trust God and look for another door to open. Bono has NEVER GIVEN UP in his advocacy, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST TO HIM in his professional/personal life. BONO GIVES HIS ALL TO AFRICA, and so do I.
So far, I have staffed an info booth for our Sister Cities program with additional info from DATA in April at our local Marleyfest, a Reggae music festival where I also collected signatures on DATA petitions. This month, I was the featured speaker at our local Candlelight Memorial Service to remember the millions of lives lost to AIDS around the world. Next month, I will have my first opportunity to speak before a church congregation and hopefully get their youth group ACTIVELY INVOLVED in a fund-raising activity for AIDS orphaned children in Lesotho. I am REALLY excited about this!
I have also been an active member of the AfricanWellFund almost from its beginning in Oct. 2002. This group of wonderful, dedicated and truly concerned people for Africa's Future has done SO MUCH GOOD in our combined efforts to raise awareness and money to build as many water wells in Africa as possible. Our Bono Birthday Well campaigns have raised OVER $25,000 in less than 2 years which builds nearly 20 water wells in Uganda and Ethiopia! I encourage people to join us and I hope someone else from the AWF will post here with more specifics about the AWF.
That's enough about me - I normally don't talk about myself but I think it's important for us, as a U2 community, to share the ways that U2's music, and especially Bono, have motivated us to be forces for GOOD (BONO) in our world!