Bono's latest AIDS campaign is in the red

Bono's latest AIDS campaign is in the red

Bono Zoom | Photo Reprints

By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR

"There are some things where the scale of the problem has you just in a spin. For me, and for others, I think you try on all fronts to fight this war. And I would be, personally speaking, in the blackest despair were it not for my faith in people and in God, and actually my faith even in people who don't believe in God."

- Rock singer Bono, speaking of the African AIDS crisis in a 2003 telephone conference interview with The Blade. Bono is seeing red. Not red as in raging, out-of-control anger. But red as in the symbol of emergency. And the red of precious lifeblood. The lead singer of popular Irish band U2 has been rallying forces in every corner of the world, from churches and government buildings to concert halls and farm fields, to join him in raising awareness and funds to fight the AIDS pandemic in Africa. Nearly 3 million Africans die every year from the immune-deficiency disease and an estimated 24 million people on the continent are living with HIV or AIDS. Bono and Bobby Shriver, who together in 2002 founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), have been rallying support for medical, educational, and financial aid to help the impoverished, disease-ravaged African continent. Their latest innovative effort to recruit support in the fight against AIDS involves an unlikely audience: American consumers. Buying an Armani designer jacket or an Apple iPod can now raise funds for African AIDS victims. "Shop until it stops," Bono said in promoting (PRODUCT) RED, the economic initiative launched in the United States Oct. 13. Originally launched in the United Kingdom in March, the first $1.25 million raised through RED was donated in May to the Rwandan Ministry of Health and, in September, $4 million went to AIDS programs in Swaziland.>>