Editor’s Note: This is the first of our Letter to the Editor series for 2014. The TCU 360 editorial board encourages members of the TCU community to sound off on any issue that is relevant to the university. The editorial board reserves the right to not publish any letter we receive, but we welcome your opinion.

Dear Editor,

At Texas Christian University, our mission statement is “To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.” As a member of the newly formed ONE Campaign chapter at TCU, I feel that the ONE Campaign is an exciting new way for TCU students to begin living our mission statement everyday as students and alumni.

The United States is overall a prosperous nation, and we are blessed to call this our home. As our own fiscal challenges become impossible to ignore, foreign assistance programs in our budget become first in line for the chopping block. But, these foreign aid programs that take up less than 1% of our budget are truly one of our finer investment options as a prosperous country. By opening up new markets for American goods and services, we are able to assist in maintaining stability in volatile areas of the world, and we are able to fulfil our historic commitment to help the world’s most impoverished and oppressed. Despite our partisan beliefs, this small portion of our budget undeniably does incredible things around the world and it remains a lifesaving contribution that the U.S. makes to the global community. Our foreign aid programs go unnoticed, yet save millions of lives through assistance like anti-Malarial bed nets, construction of functioning rural hospitals, schools for the world’s youth, and lifesaving AIDS/HIV treatment.

Less than 1% of our budget is truly changing the world, and these facts cannot go unnoticed by our representatives due to our own neglect of such issues. As Horned Frogs and as members of the global community, we as an entire campus can begin advocating with groups such as the ONE Campaign. I encourage each and every one of my fellow Frogs to let your voice be heard by joining us in our advocacy through the ONE Campaign here on campus to ensure that our fight against extreme poverty does not hit the backburner.

-Lydia Gail McGarva (2015)

ONE Campus Leader/Intern

For more information regarding ONE at TCU please join us on Facebook (ONE at TCU) and Twitter (@ONETCU).