Look To The Stars News: Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes’ Promise To Children In Good Times And Bad

Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0000

Actor Ralph Fiennes, UNICEF UK Ambassador, has made a small video on his promise to children. The video clip and his promise are in support of UNICEF’s Promise Me Campaign.

In anticipation of the G8 summit that took place earlier this month, UNICEF wanted to bring attention to the millions of children around the world who are unable to live a normal childhood even though the “convention on the rights of the child” was ratified by most countries twenty years ago. It is violated everyday, especially in places such as Somalia and Chad.

Fiennes went to Chad to meet with some of the children, and listened to their “horrific stories of degrading and brutalizing treatment.”

“In these tough economic times and as the G8 gathers, if the world leaders break their promises, children will suffer irreversible damage. A whole generation will lose out,” says Fiennes in his clip.

“All children have rights – rights to education, and health, to have a voice, and to be treated fairly, to simply be a child, not catapulted into a world of adult stresses and strains. And these rights don’t stop when the going gets tough.

“We cannot turn our backs on the hardest to reach. We must work harder than ever to protect their rights to health and education and to give them back their childhood, to give them back their futures.”

Michelle Yeoh Against Illegal Wildlife Trade

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

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

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

Ralph Fiennes’ Promise To Children In Good Times And Bad

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Michelle Yeoh Against Illegal Wildlife Trade

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