Look To The Stars News: Ricky Martin Foundation

Ricky Martin To Open Children's Center In Puerto Rico

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:00:00 +0000

Ricky Martin will be expanding his philanthropic work by opening a new Prevention Center in Puerto Rico, to help fight human trafficking. Having founded the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2000, Martin works to defend children’s rights and promote awareness efforts to enable children to be, quite simply, children.

Martin’s current initiatives in Puerto Rico include the ‘Se Trata’ community program, run by the Ricky Martin Foundation and Doral Bank, which aims to protect children and youth in Puerto Rico from human trafficking. The Ricky Martin Foundation has also granted 12 scholarships to provide financial support to low income students, enabling them to attend the School of Medicine at the University of Puerto Rico.

Set to open early 2012, the Child Development and Prevention Center will allow children and youth at risk to receive an emotional and educational alternative that will maximize their potential as dignified human beings, and be proud of their culture and heritage. The center will be situated in Loiza, Puerto Rico, but Martin has said that it is just the start of a project which will spread across the rest of the island, and on to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Latin America.

Kylie Minogue To Host Charity Gala To Honor Ricky Martin

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:00:00 +0000

amfAR, The American Foundation for AIDS Research, will launch the Inspiration Galas – a series of fundraising events celebrating all aspects of men’s style – this week. The series, produced by Josh Wood Productions, will take place in New York, Paris, and Los Angeles.

   Kylie Minogue, the international pop star and style icon who is preparing to release her eleventh studio album, will host the inaugural Inspiration Gala at the New York Public Library on Thursday, June 3, 2010.

“I’m honored to join the list of prestigious designers as the host of amfAR’s inaugural Inspiration Gala at the historical New York Public Library and to help raise awareness and funds for AIDS research,” she said.

Ricky Martin Leads All-Star Cast To Raise Charity Cash For Haiti

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:30:00 +0000

It has been a busy few weeks for Ricky Martin – last Monday he presented government officials in Puerto Rico a study on human trafficking, and now he is fronting a campaign to help victims of the Haitian earthquake.

The She Bangs singer returned to his native country of Puerto Rico last week to urge the government to act on the human trafficking problem. He presented officials with a study carried out by his Ricky Martin Foundation that pinpoints the country as having a major role in the illegal sex and kidnapping trade.

“This is happening on our island,” he said. “We cannot turn our back on the victims.”

Ricky Martin To Launch Human Rights Hotline

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:56:34 +0000

Sultry Latino pop star Ricky Martin will hit the streets of Washington DC today, April 29, to raise awareness of human rights issues.

The singer’s Llama y Vive campaign, which is part of the International Organization for Migration, will hold an event at the Inter-American Development Bank headquarters on New York Avenue at 11am to launch “Call and Live”, an initiative that promotes an anti-trafficking hotline for human trafficking prevention and victim protection.

The campaign aims to reach 100,000 Latinos in the D.C. area with prevention messages about human trafficking, and provide access to legal and social services for victims through a Spanish-language hotline. Call and Live has been implemented in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru and Nicaragua, where it has triggered more than 55,000 relevant calls to the national hotlines, 60 police investigations, and the rescue of at least a dozen victims.

Ricky Martin Joins Poverty Campaign

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:03:51 +0000

Latino singing star Ricky Martin met with several other artists in Miami last week to launch a new campaign in the fight against poverty.

The hip-swinging singer joined with fellow Latino heartthrobs Juan Luis Guerra and Juanes to become spokespersons for the Yo Amo America Campaign, an initiative that plans to use the performers’ profiles to raise awareness among policymakers about the importance of making investments in early childhood development, financial services, housing, and safe drinking water. And with over 360 million people in Latin America who live on less than $300 a month, it is an issue that requires immediate attention.

Martin has agreed to promote birth registration as part of the campaign, an area he believes will increase access to education, health, and other public services. Around 8.5 million children in Latin America presently lack any form of identity papers, a fact Martin thinks also contributes to the high proportion of child trafficking. Human trafficking is a major source of concern for Martin – a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF – and he established the Ricky Martin Foundation to combat it.

Ricky Martin Fights Human Trafficking

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:49:29 +0000

In February of this year, singer Ricky Martin spent three-days at a United Nations conference in Vienna where he learned of Cambodia’s child trafficking problems. This week, he was reduced to tears during a charity trip to a Cambodian shelter where a teenage rape victim performed a song she wrote about her ordeal as a trafficking victim.

“She sings like an angel,” said Martin, a five-time Grammy Award winner.

The sultry pop star was representing his Ricky Martin Foundation in support of the fight against human trafficking when he visited a shelter in Siem Reap in order to spend time with children affected by sexual assaults. The shelter houses 65 victims of human trafficking, and Martin spent time comforting, among others, a 3-month-old girl whose mother was sold into prostitution, as well as numerous children in need of comfort.