They may be in Birmingham, but the efforts of two students are making a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world, thanks to their work with the ONE Campaign and its chapter at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The campaign, which was founded by Bono, lead singer for the rock band U2, has 9 million members worldwide and chapters at hundreds of college campuses. It aims to end extreme poverty and preventable disease.

Aleena Khan and Nuha Hamid, students at UAB and leaders of its ONE Campaign chapter, attended the ONE Power Summit in Washington, D.C., to learn how they can help reduce poverty and disease by lobbying lawmakers and raising awareness about global health issues.

During the three-day summit, they received briefings on current issues and advocacy training and listened to global health experts from around the world. They also spent a day on Capitol Hill, where they met with the staffs of Sen. Doug Jones, Sen. Richard Shelby and Rep. Terri Sewell.

“Every year, our nation’s international affairs budget helps combat global poverty by saving millions of lives and helping millions of people,” said Hamid, a public health major in the School of Public Health at UAB. “We told them why students at UAB want our leaders to do more to champion a strong international affairs budget that does the most good and helps the most people.”

Khan will take over from Hamid as the leader of the UAB chapter this summer. She says the conference helped her define her goals for the future of the group.

“I want to get more people involved on campus,” Khan explained. “I want more people to know about ONE because a lot of people don’t know what we do; but once they find out, they want to get involved. I want to provide them the resources and tools to get them involved from the start.”