Meet Bono, the silent man behind Ethiopia progress

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There are few people in the music industry who have the presence of Bono. The Irish frontman of U2 knows no limitations when it comes to fighting poverty and hunger, and is constantly in direct contact with world leaders and policy makers in his quest to make the world a better place.

His first contact with charitable causes was in 1986, prior to the Conspiracy of Hope tour, when World Vision invited him to Ethiopia. While there, Bono developed an education program with his wife, Ali, that used one-act plays and songs to spread information on health, hygiene, and other issues. He released a book of photos he took during the trip called “String Of Pearls”.

It is an extraordinary fact that the lead singer with the world’s biggest rock band is also our generation’s most persuasive champion of the downtrodden. Irreverent, funny, iconoclastic and relentless, Bono has become stunningly effective in bringing the world’s most powerful leaders to take seriously the problems of AIDS and African poverty.

In 2002, he co-founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa). Many credit him as the driving force behind the US government’s recent dramatic increase in AIDS funding. And no one who has heard him speak about “our generation’s greatest challenge” can come away unmoved. After U2′s historic Live Aid performance in 1985, Bono traveled to Ethiopia with his wife, Ali. There they spent several weeks helping with a famine relief project. The experience shocked him and ignited a determination to work for change.

In Bono’s own words: “What are the blind spots of our age? It might be something as simple as our deep-down refusal to believe that every human life has equal worth.” In 2005, Bono became one of the inaugural winners of the TED Prize; he used his wish to raise awareness and inspire activism for Africa. In 2007, he accepted an honorary British knighthood for his work. “Bono always makes his visits [to Africa] substantive, using the accompanying media to educate the wider world about the plight of the poor in less developed countries.”