Look To The Stars News: Yéle Haiti Foundation

Matt Damon Returns For ONE X ONE

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:30:00 -0000

For the third year in a row, Matt Damon will host ONE X ONE’s annual charity benefit gala, where celebrities and activists will gather for an evening of musical performances, words from key speakers, fundraising and entertainment.

ONE X ONE’s Difference Awards will also be presented at the gala, recognizing individuals for their extraordinary efforts in fighting child poverty and suffering. One of last year’s honorees, Wyclef Jean, is returning this year as musical director and performer. Other entertainment will include John Legend and the African Children’s Choir, which is raising awareness of the needs of Africa’s orphans and destitute children.

A fairly young organization, ONE X ONE raises millions of dollars each year for projects within Canada and abroad for partners such as H2O Africa, the Yéle Haiti Foundation, Millennium Promise, War Child and Spread the Net to “directly impact children in need around the world – one by one.”

“There is an old biblical adage that says ‘You save one life, you save the universe,’” said Joelle Adler, ONE X ONE’s founder. “That should be our motto. We cannot look across the water and pretend it is not our responsibility because together we can change the world.”

The gala and concert will be held at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto on September 8 and a second gala will take place at Exhibition Centre in San Francisco on October 23 honoring Carlos Santana.

Wyclef Jean Pushes For Economic Change In Haiti

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:30:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

Hip hop artist Wyclef Jean spent five days in his native Haiti last week to further his humanitarian efforts in the impoverished Caribbean nation, and used the visit to call for serious economic change.

The 35-year-old rapper – born in the Haitian village of Croix-des-Bouquets – stated that the country needs foreign investment and assistance with sustainable development to help its people beat the poverty and food shortages that are crippling its economy, not just charity and handouts that could cause Haiti to become even more dependent on other nations than it is now.

"I understand that there is a food crisis that needs to be addressed urgently, but at the same time donors need to inject funds in projects likely to bring sustainable results,” Jean told Reuters. “Charity will never solve Haiti’s problems. Haitians want jobs, they want to develop their agriculture to produce food, not to everlastingly receive food assistance. To solve the economic crisis, we need investments and to have investments we need security. To have security we have to start addressing the social problems in the most vulnerable and underprivileged neighborhoods.”

Jean, who was appointed as a roving ambassador for the country by President Rene Preval last year, has been working tirelessly to help Haitians in their day-to-day struggle to survive. He established the Yéle Haiti Foundation in 2005 to make a difference in education, health, environment and community development, and in May he launched an initiative to raise $48 million to expand food distribution and provide assistance to farmers. He has also urged Haitians to cut their high crime rate to make foreign investment more secure.

“Social and economic change will remain a utopian dream if we remain divided,” he said.

Wyclef Jean Forms Partnership For Haiti Food Crisis Help

Fri, 23 May 2008 10:52:00 -0000

Written by Steve Purcell

Musician Wyclef Jean announced on Tuesday that his Yele Haiti Foundation has formed a partnership with two other charities to help address the growing food crisis in Haiti.

Rising food and fuel costs have left the Caribbean island nation’s poor unable to afford food, resulting in widespread hunger and even rioting. Haitian native Jean, who first made his name as a member of The Fugees, is joining forces with the United Nations World Food Programme and the Pan American Development Foundation to form Together for Haiti.

The programme hopes to raise $48 million, with which it will provide targeted food distribution, employment in agriculture regeneration programmes, and micro-enterprise grants.

At the Manhattan launch of the partnership, Wyclef Jean stressed the importance of helping the Haitian poor to help themselves:

“How can you make people in a poor economy entrepreneurs? Well, if you give these families five chickens and you give them food for these chickens and give then a cage they automatically become entrepreneurs. Because, they can eat now and they can raise the chickens and sell chickens.”

Together for Haiti is a natural extension to Jean’s Yéle Haiti Foundation, the goal of which the musician says is "to restore pride and a reason to hope, and for the whole country to regain the deep spirit and strength that is part of our heritage.”

For more information, or to make a donation, visit www.togetherforhaiti.org. Just 25 cents can buy a school meal for a hungry child.

Angelina Jolie - Helping Her Heroes

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:34:29 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

She may be known for her various roles on the silver screen that have earned her Golden Globes and an Academy Award, but perhaps Angelina Jolie’s greatest role is that which she plays in real life – Global Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. And it is exceedingly clear that the dedication that she shows in her acting is reflected in her work for humanitarian causes around the world.

The 32-year-old actor has just returned from a visit to Iraq, in which she met with top political officials to discuss people displaced by the war.

“There are over two million displaced people and there never seems to be a real coherent plan to help them,” she told CNN on her return. “There’s lots of goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seems to be a lot of talk at the moment and a lot of pieces that need to be put together.”

The trip was a follow-up to her visit to the country six months ago, and marks Jolie’s commitment to displaced persons and refugees in war-ravaged nations, and confirms her dedication to implement solutions wherever possible.

“Of the two million internally displaced, it’s estimated 58 percent are under 12 years old. It’s a very high number of people in a very, very vulnerable situation and a lot of young kids,” said Jolie. "So far, the different US officials I met with and different local people I’ve met with all have shared concerns, very, very strongly. They have spoken out about the humanitarian crisis, but there seems to be a block in.”

Jolie traveled to Baghdad with Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, and met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, and Refugees Minister Abdel Samad Rahman Sultan. As a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, Jolie is well known for using her status as a superstar to generate media coverage about the plight of refugees and the conditions under which they live, and this trip to Iraq proved no different.

“This trip is to get a better picture of the internally displaced people and to discuss [the situation] with the local government, with our government, with the NGOs and with local people,” said Jolie. “I’m not good at policy and fixing all this and saying what’s wrong, but I do know that, for example, U.N.H.C.R. needs to be more active inside Iraq… I know that this is one thing that needs to be addressed and solved because there does need to be a real presence here to help count the people and register the people. Also, the prime minister here needs to empower the government that deals with migration and displacement to be able to address the concerns for these people, and that hasn’t happened in a significant way yet.”

Born in Los Angeles in 1975, Jolie’s acting career has already spanned two decades. Her first feature role was in Lookin’ to Get Out in 1982, a film co-written and co-produced by her father, the acclaimed actor Jon Voight. Since then, she has received Golden Globe Awards for the television movies George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and her film credits include Hackers (1995), The Bone Collector (1999), Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000), Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003), and Mr and Mrs Smith (alongside her partner, Brad Pitt, in 2005).

It was while filming the first Tomb Raider movie in Cambodia, a country stricken by poverty, that Jolie began to become aware of humanitarian issues around her. She approached the UNHCR for more information, and was sent to Sierra Leone, a small African country that – like the Democratic Republic of the Congo – had been devastated by years of brutal civil war. Seeing firsthand the enormous challenges that refugees face was a life-altering experience for the actress, and she was named a UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador in August 2001.

Over the next few years, Jolie witnessed some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. She visited refugee camps in Tanzania, Pakistan, Thailand, Ecuador, Kosovo, Kenya, and Namibia, covering all of her own costs and insisting on sharing the same living and working conditions as field workers.

In 2003 Jolie published Notes From My Travels, a compelling collection of journal entries from her early field missions. She now publishes her latest journal entries on the UNHCR website.

Since 2003, Jolie has traveled to refugee camps in Sri Lanka, Russia, Jordan, Beirut, and Egypt, and has also visited detained asylum seekers in Arizona. In 2005 she filmed an MTV special entitled “The Diary of Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in Africa”, portraying her trip to a remote group of villages in Kenya, and has visited Chad and Darfur several times since fighting erupted there in 2004.

In recent years, Jolie has been joined by Brad Pitt on many of her trips. In 2005 the pair witnessed the devastation of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan, and in 2006 they visited a school in Haiti supported by Wyclef Jean’s Yéle Haiti Foundation.

Also in 2006, the pair founded the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which made initial donations of $1 million to Doctors Without Borders and Global Action for Children. This was followed by a $100,000 donation to the Daniel Pearl Foundation, another to the Duk Lost Boys Medical Clinic in the Sudan, and $1 million to help refugees in Chad and Darfur.

Angelina Jolie’s generosity seems bottomless, and her heart is clearly as big as her stardom. In 2005, she announced the founding of the National Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Children, an organization that provides free legal aid to asylum-seeking children, and personally funded it with $1 million over 2 years. She also co-chairs the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, a program established at the 2006 Clinton Global Initiative that has pledged to help with the education of over 1 million children affected by conflict around the world.

Her missions to the most dangerous troublespots in the far-flung corners of the world look set to continue well into the future.

“It’s always hard to see decent people, families, living in such difficult conditions,” she said. “What is most upsetting is how long it is taking the international community to answer this crisis… You go to these places and you realize what life’s really about and what people are really going through. These people are my heroes.”

Wyclef Plays for Pick Your Charity Poker

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:38:13 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

The Vail Hold ‘Em Poker Event for Your Cause, held last month in Vail, Colorado, raised nearly a quarter million dollars for various charities. Hosted by Mario Lopez, with Wyclef Jean performing many of his popular hits, a host of celebrities competed to win $100,000 for their charity of choice.

Competing stars included Kelis, Joey Fatone and Boyz II Men playing for The Fatone Family Foundation and Lift Up America, and Shannon Elizabeth playing for her own charity Animal Avengers. Also playing were James Kyson Lee, Danny Masterson, Robert Iler, Kevin Brown and Jason Chambers.

Chris Masterson, playing for Citizens Commission on Human Rights, made it to the final round but lost to investor Mark Lotke, the only top prize winner, who donated his $100,000 to the Spotlight Foundation. Wyclef Jean was supporting his own charity, the Yéle Haiti Foundation.

Following the poker championship were live and silent auctions. The Alex Rodriquez 500 baseball bat, which went for $15,000, was the biggest hit.

Such was the event’s success that it has already been decided to make it an annual occasion.

Damon and Affleck Travel to Africa

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:53:52 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

September has already turned into a busy month for actor Matt Damon, and has seen him hosting a major children’s gala event, attending a screening of the documentary he produced to bring awareness to H2O Africa, and now flying to Africa.

September 10 saw Damon and long time friend, Ben Affleck, traveling to Tanzania to learn about the aid work being carried out in the country.

“We’re just going to observe these programs,” said Damon, who visited Zambia on a similar trip in 2006. “Our job is just to be quiet and take notes and meet people and listen to peoples’ stories.”

The Academy Award winning actor and screenwriter also hoped to spend time in the troubled region of Darfur, but that part of the trip was cancelled due to increasing security alerts.

“I’m still open to going, and I hope to go,” said Damon, who has already raised over $10 million this year for the region with Don Cheadle, George Clooney and Brad Pitt. “There’s clearly an appetite back at home for what the issues are there, but also it’s a very complicated situation there… and it keeps changing.”

Damon also hosted the annual ONE X ONE benefit gala on September 9, the night before flying to Tanzania. The event, held at the Four Seasons Centre For Performing Arts in Toronto, followed the actor’s appearance at a screening of Running The Sahara, a film he produced and narrated, and which hopes to gather support for clean water supply programs in Africa.

“I’ve seen solutions to these very real problems,” said the actor, referring to his work with the film, which screened as part of the Toronto Film Festival. “I’ve seen these things working, and it’s exciting for me.”

The One X One gala aimed to raise money to improve the lives of children in Canada and around the world. The event featured a performance by Shakira, and honored singer Wyclef Jean for his work in Haiti with the Yéle Haiti Foundation, as well as model Petra Nemcova, who was seriously injured in the devastating 2004 tsunami, and used her experience to raise funds for other tsunami survivors. Sarah Fergusson and actor Richard Gere were also honored.

“This event is so great, and it’s such a huge fundraiser,” said Matt Damon. “The people that show up… they’re there to make an impact.”

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are scheduled to remain in Africa for a week.

Damon Is Back for ONE X ONE

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 16:50:34 -0000

Written by Elizabeth Willoughby

Matt Damon will once again host ONE X ONE’s annual Difference Awards ceremony on September 9. Among those being recognized this year for their extraordinary efforts towards fighting child poverty and suffering will be Richard Gere, Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine and Petra Nemcova.

ONE X ONE is a non-profit organization that supports children in Canada and abroad. Established less than three years ago, it has already raised over $5 million and created partnerships with major corporations and foundations.

The charity’s projects include providing first-nations kids with breakfast every day, and a ‘doctor exchange’ in which doctors from Haiti and Rwanda will train at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children; in turn, Toronto doctors will travel to Rwanda to repair the heart valves of children damaged by water-borne illnesses.

ONE X ONE is also helping 12,000 children attend school in a Rwandan village, and has created a basket-weaving co-op. “If you’re trying to take people out of poverty,” says charity founder Joelle Berdugo Adler, “you have to give them tools, not handouts.”

The awards will be given at the gala in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, where Shakira, Wyclef Jean of the Fugees, Nikki Yanofsky, the African Children’s Choir and others will perform. Wyclef Jean is also to be honoured for his Yéle Haiti Foundation (Cry Haiti), as are Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin, who ran cross the Sahara Dessert earlier this year to raise awareness for H2O Africa, the clean-water initiative founded by Damon and his partners at LivePlanet. Their documentary film of the run, which Damon narrates, will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Look To The Stars News: Yéle Haiti Foundation

Matt Damon Returns For ONE X ONE

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