(Product) Red

(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world's most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Website: http://www.joinred.com/products

The campaign hopes to all relate to the same place and the same idea: that Africa is the proving ground for whether or not we really believe in equality.

For example, we are witnessing a general desire and drift toward action on climate change, a very positive thing. But imagine for a moment that 10 million children were going to lose their lives next year due to the earth's overheating. A state of emergency would be declared, and you would be reading about little else.

Well, next year, more than 10 million children's lives will be lost unnecessarily to extreme poverty, and you'll hear very little about it. Nearly half will be on the continent of Africa, where HIV/AIDS is killing teachers faster than you can train them and where you can witness entire villages in which the children are the parents. All over the world, countless children will die as a result of mosquito bites, dirty water, and diarrhea. It's not a natural catastrophe—it's a completely avoidable one. Diarrhea may be inconvenient in our house, but it's not a death sentence.

The One Campaign to Make Poverty History is an umbrella group of different NGOs and grassroots activists from across the political spectrum who believe these issues are about justice, not charity.

In the project's first nine months, $25 million has gone directly from (Red) partners to the Global Fund, which grants money to health-care organizations around the world to fight aids, tuberculosis, and malaria. That is more than Australia, Switzerland, and China contributed last year.

From here, what's needed is a leg up, not a handout. Targeted debt cancellation and aid mean 20 million more African kids are in school, 1.3 million Africans are on lifesaving drugs. Amazing!

See Bono's message: http://www.joinred.com/red/bono.asp

Inspi(RED) ideas for the world
The statistics say it all: 33 million people worldwide currently live with HIV and Aids; 4,100 people die of Aids-related conditions every day. And that number is growing. Yet Aids is a preventable and treatable disease. It costs just 20p to fund the two daily antiretroviral pills needed to keep alive someone with HIV, but 70 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than £1 a day and cannot afford them.
That's where (RED) comes in. (RED)'s primary objective is to engage the private sector in raising awareness and funds to help eliminate Aids in Africa (http://www.joinred.com/). Companies whose products take on the (RED) mark contribute a significant percentage of the profits from the sales of those products to the Global Fund, the world's leading provider of programmes to fight Aids, with a focus on the health of women and children. The fund also supports counselling, testing and education activities based on agreed performance targets, and disburses money in response to proven results.
Since 2006, more than $112 million has been generated by (RED), benefiting 2.5 million people. (RED) has already helped provide more than 93,000 people in Africa with life-saving antiretroviral drugs. If enough consumers buy (RED) products, those with Aids will stay alive longer and be able to take care of their families, contribute to their communities and live a fuller life.

Buying (RED) products saves lives: it's as simple as that.