Look To The Stars News: Ralph Fiennes

Michelle Yeoh Against Illegal Wildlife Trade

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 09:56:53 -0000

Actress and former beauty queen Michelle Yeoh has joined WildAid in utilizing YouTube to post videos on the wildlife poaching crisis. WildAid is a non-profit organization that seeks to put an end to illegal wildlife trade “by focusing on awareness to reduce the demand for threatened and endangered species products and to increase public support for wildlife conservation.”

With awareness in mind, using WildAid’s motto: When the buying stops the killing can too, Jackie Chan, Ralph Fiennes, Ang Lee, Minnie Driver and other stars have posted short public service announcement videos on YouTube as well, Chan’s being the most graphic, against the illegal trade and its costs.

WildAid works worldwide with governments, communities and celebrities to make wildlife conservation a global priority.

Gorbachev Cancer Fundraiser Draws Stars

Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:13:15 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev hosted a gala dinner last weekend to raise money for the cancer charity he established in memory of his wife.

Raisa Gorbachev died of leukemia in 1999, and the Raisa Gorbachev Foundation aims to create a specialist hospital in St. Petersburg, Russia, that will provide high-quality medical care to children with cancer.

The gala event at Hampton Court Palace was attended by Bob Geldof, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, actors Ralph Fiennes, Kim Cattrall and Anna Friel, singer Rod Stewart, authors Tom Wolfe and JK Rowling and supermodel Elle Macpherson.

Fiennes, Shilpa Raise AIDS Awareness in India

Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:23:18 -0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

British actor Ralph Fiennes and the UK Celebrity Big Brother winner Shilpa Shetty are doing their parts to raise AIDS awareness in India.

With 5.7 million infections, India has the world’s largest number of people living with HIV and AIDS. According to UNAIDS figures 202,000 of these are children, with about 60,000 more children likely to be born with HIV every year.

Although the Indian government offers free drugs and people are gradually beginning to speak openly about the issues involved, a social stigma commonly surrounds the disease. People affected by HIV and AIDS are often disowned by their famies, denied treatment at hospitals, made outcasts in their communities, and their children barred from schools.

At the end of January, Fiennes visited four villages in five days while travelling as an ambassador to UNICEF. The English Patient star listened to the experiences of young people and children affected by HIV in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

“What has moved me is not the tragedy or the shadow over these people, but the strength it brings out in them,” he said about meeting with people were disowned by their families once they learned they were HIV positive.

“Education, awareness and prevention are the key, but stigmatization and exclusion from family is what makes people suffer most,” he said.

AIDS has also been an important issue to Bollywood actess Shilpa Shetty for the past four years. She is starting a charity dedicated to to raising AIDS awareness called the Shilpa Shetty Foundation, and is donating all of her winnings from Big Brother to the cause.

Shetty’s performance as an AIDS patient in the Bollywood film Phir Milenge won her several Best Actress nominations.

She says, “India is the second largest affected country in the world with the AIDS. So I think it’s important to do something about it and it’s every person’s right to live with dignity in our country, even it’s a person who is HIV positive.”

Look To The Stars News: Ralph Fiennes

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