The internet belongs to everyone. It should be accessible by everyone.” This announcement was made this year, during the Web Summit that took place in Lisbon, on the 8th November. The lead singer of U2 did not attend Europe’s most important tech meeting in Portugal’s capital, instead his own non-profit organization called ONEmarked presence, and kicked off by announcing that they want to make internet available to approx. 350 million people: the number of women and girls living in the poorer countries of the world, to whom ONE wants to give internet access by 2020 relying on combined efforts from the public and private sectors.
Bono Vox is known for being quite the philanthropic superstar and this latest announcement comes to prove that once again. Although this “internet for the poor” measure is aimed for the entire population in general, it targets women and girls in particular, as the singer states that they are three times less likely to have internet access in these countries than boys and men. Bono asked for people to sign the petition on ONE’s webpage, so that world leaders would take immediate actions to reduce the gap between men and women, boys and girls, in the aspect of internet access. The organization added that “access to the internet isn’t a luxury, it’s life-changing. But right now, like poverty, it’s sexist.”
The motto of the movement comes from the followings statement, where the action is meant to “deliver affordable access and ensure that [people] have the skills, education and literacy to use the Internet” that can “provide lifesaving information”.
ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organization founded back in 2004 by 11 different organizations, including Bread for the World, Save the Children U.S., World Concern, and many more financed by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. ONE now counts over seven million people around the world fighting against “extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa”. The organization uses public awareness to try and pressure world leaders to support measures, and adopt common policies in order to save lives, and improve the future of those whose livelihood is a struggle every day. Bono is one of the co-founders of ONE, and one of the most famous activists whose interventions already led to a Nobel Price nomination.
In 2015 ONE launched a report titled “Poverty is Sexist”. This action specifies how the women and girls of Africa are particularly affected by poverty, and in these areas it is the header under which this petition for internet access was created. You can join and sign the petition here.
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