"Peace y'all,

I've been fortunate enough to travel the world and experience so many different cultures, but nothing has impacted me the way South Africa has, nothing at all. I was fortunate to go there with MTV, but while I was there, I was able to investigate the HIV/AIDS pandemic for myself.

Even now, it's hard for me to come to terms with what I saw and what I'm still feeling about the whole experience. It's one thing to hear about it, another to read the statistics, but it's a whole other thing to experience it yourself and listen to the stories personally and meet the people affected by it. Our people. I had no idea of the magnitude of what was happening in Africa until I got there.

AIDS is the worst health disaster in human history and if we don't use our personal power, it will proliferate until it threatens humanity itself. It is already wiping out Mother Africa. She is crying out for medicine. The medicine that we take for granted here in the U.S. is not available to 99% of Africans because of cost.

After leaving Africa, there remained an amazing weight on my shoulders. I felt like I had two choices: 1) to either continue on with my privileged American life containing every opportunity and act like I never went to Africa and forget that it all happened and that it was just a distant land that had nothing to do with me (which I could never do) or 2) I could keep the feeling that I had in my heart about that amazing place that touched me so much and try to offer some type of help, something that could shed some much-needed light onto the situation.

So, I asked myself, "What can I do? Can one little person in this very big world make a difference?" I was able to speak to Leigh Blake, who's the founder of Keep A Child Alive and she told me, "You can sponsor some children and pay for the life-saving medications that will keep them from dying needlessly and help us launch Keep A Child Alive to the public." And when I heard that people like me and you can step up and pay for the drugs at less than a dollar a day, I thought, "Yes, that makes sense to me." I urge you to become involved in this important initiative because I know that if we don't do it now, and if we don't do it together, it won't get done.

The people of Africa need anti-retroviral drugs NOW. It can't be tomorrow and it can't be three years from now when there will be 9 million more people dead. It has to be NOW. This should be as important as the War on Terrorism, it should be as important as rebuilding impoverished countries like Afghanistan, it should be as important as trying to have peace in the Middle East. This should be as important as if your daughter or son were dying and you could do nothing about it. That's how important this should be to us.

I come to you as a messenger. Please help. Take time out of your blessed lives and help someone else in desperate need. Africa has been continuously robbed of its culture, its natural resources, its gold and diamonds, its land and now it's being robbed of its life...and we're the thieves. If we don't think this is important enough to fund, then we might as well admit that we are the thieves. If three million people dying a year does not warrant our immediate attention, then who have we become and what have we allowed our leaders to do in our name?

I ask that you feel the importance of this project and really recognize how it affects all of us. Please, look into your hearts and find compassion. Look into your minds and do what is right. Help Keep a Child Alive save these lives because we can and we should!

Give and you shall receive,

Alicia Keys"

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