RSS
Home
Take example from American and International celebrity volunteers
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Maybe it’s fashionable, but not in the circles of people who truly care about today’s society, economy and ecology, and there are just a few good men who are out there doing it.
In years past, there was a lot of news coverage, talking about celebrities who worked with charities as spokespeople, some of which didn’t pursue beyond simply showing up to sound studios to record public service announcements, or giving donations to agencies and non-profit organizations who, then, allocated them to various disaster relieves. Only a few celebrities have been fiercely pursuing causes, traveling to sites of need and taking parts in worldwide events together with just regular folks.
In case you missed it, December 5 was International Volunteer Day (IVD), but it’s never late to start doing good deeds. IVD was adopted by The United Nations General Assembly by resolution in 1985 to give volunteer organizations and individual volunteers the opportunity to highlight their contributions, and to encourage others to follow.
To mark IVD this year, the Association of Voluntary Service Organizations — a European network of voluntary service organizations based in Brussels — launched the “Invisible Heroes” campaign to collect as many photos of serving volunteers for one year. The campaign kicked off on the IVD 2007 and ran for 12 months, until Dec. 5, 2008. The campaign is aimed at demonstrating the magnitude of voluntary service in Europe, and convincing key decision makers to give the issue more attention. To view the first pictures of European Invisible Heroes, visit http://www.avso.org/index_i.html.
Whereas you might have missed the International Volunteer Day, you have not yet missed the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, which will take place in Houston (April 4-5), Washington DC (May 2-3), Boston (May 16-17), Chicago (June 6-7), Rocky Mountains (June 27-28), San Francisco (July 11-12), Los Angeles (September 12-13), New York (October 10-11) and Charlotte (October 24-25). As another bonus, if supporting Breast Cancer is not enough, you might get to see Reese Witherspoon, Avon Global Ambassador. Last year alone, Reese Witherspoon joined walkers in D.C. - the weekend-long event that attracted 3,500 participants who raised $8.1 million.
Over the years, a trend or not a trend, movie stars, models, musicians, professional athletes and other glitterati are getting their on-hands experience with charity work, traveling to some of the worlds’ most remote places to personally help out those in need. But as much as we pride ourselves, Americans, for all the exposure we create for charities, it was Princess Diana of England, who actually was the first “celebrity” who brought the world’s needs to our attention. While she obviously did not need additional attention from press, neither she needed more fans as she had millions of people around the world, she still felt that she was in the privileged position to get the world out. These, but not all, include projects to assist those living with HIV/AIDS, communities affected by landmines, and other vulnerable and marginalized people.
At the Concert for Diana, tribute concert, Princes William and Harry selected eight charities to donate to the event’s net proceeds. A total of £1.6m was distributed after the Concert in equal shares to these beneficiaries: Princess of Wales Memorial Fund, which was founded after the Princess’s death; Sentebale, the Lesotho children’s charity which Prince Harry founded in memory of his mother; and the six organizations of which the Princess was Patron at the time of her death: the Royal Marsden and Great Ormond Street Hospitals, Centrepoint (of which Prince William is now Patron), The Leprosy Mission, The National AIDS Trust and English National Ballet.
Now, her sons are following her charity works and volunteering efforts. Prince Harry began special training in the fall of 2008 to volunteer with the charity MapAction that provides rapid mapping services for humanitarian disaster and relief situations around the world.
Using a combination of techniques including satellite imagery, global positioning systems (GPS), geographical information systems (GIS), and on-the-ground observation, MapAction produces maps during natural disasters that highlight the areas where emergency attention is needed most. The maps also pinpoint important logistical and transport facilities, such as working bridges, undamaged roads and potential landing sites for helicopters.
UNICEF, another global organization - the United Nations organization - supports children less fortunate and in need around the world. The organization has a number of celebrity “good will ambassadors” who regularly travel to remote locations to help communities struggling against poverty, AIDS, hunger and natural disasters. Such celebrities as, Jackie Chan and Madonna, who came with her daughter, Lourdes, to host 'A Night To Benefit Raising Malawi And UNICEF’ last February, are not the only ones. And while we question why all the photos that were taking at the ‘benefit’ have a background of Gucci logo and not UNICEF, we don’t question Chan who has traveled to Cambodia several times to visit HIV/AIDS and landmine rehabilitation projects supported by UNICEF. In Ethiopia alone more than 80 percent of the 15,000 to 20,000 landmine victims each year are civilians, and at least one in five are children.
You can also volunteer with UNICEF by contacting the United Nations Volunteer (UNV) program. Visit the UNICEF website for more information.
Like UNICEF, the American Red Cross makes good use of celebrities to work directly in the field with communities and is able to attract big attention to the issues they are working on, such as Hurricane Katrina relief efforts when Red Cross delivered nearly 31,000 pounds of supplies to help suffered people to rebuild their communities.
Heidi Klum is no stranger to Red Cross as well. A mom of three, a reality-show host and producer, business woman, fashion designer, working model and a wife to Seal, Klum has never forgotten that she once lived in a small town with a mere 100,000 residents, Bergisch Gladbach, who were not as fortunate as she is now. Other celebrities that stand behind Red Cross are Marcia Gay Harden, Pierce Brosnan, Julianne Moore, and Cuba Gooding, among the others. To see how you can volunteer with the Red Cross, visit their website.
Actually, a woman who fascinated me for years, and who has never been on any “celebrity” scenes – Julia Ormond, who has been actively engaged with fighting human trafficking since the mid-1990s, and who has recently partnered with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, is a British actress who put her film career on hold so that she cold also serve as an advocate for Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS that raises awareness about AIDS in Russia and Ukraine, and also became a founding co-chairman of FilmAid International - humanitarian aid organization that uses film and video to entertain and to educate refugees around the world.
And if this was not enough, Ormond was appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador in 2005, helping to fight human-trafficking. In her capacity as an ambassador, Ormond has appeared as council to a number of committees, such as the United States House of Representatives, Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations, and has been often seen traveling the world, supporting not one, but a few causes.
To read more about celebrities and their work with a variety of charities, check out Look to the Stars to learn what 1690 celebrities support what causes. The goal of the site to expose general public to celebrities’ volunteer and charity work, and following from it – inspire fans to follow in the steps of their idols.
But these are all big name organizations that one can Google and get ton of information. There are other organizations that get less attention, but matter as much. And just because Angelina Jolie and Nicole Kidman are not their ambassadors, it does not mean they matter less. These organizations do have well-known people who stand in the shadow of glitter press, doing same amount of work as the most-covered-by-press ones.
It does not cost a thing go join. It does, however, “cost” time – time you will put towards helping the others, and by helping the other countries. In return, you are affecting your own home country’s well-being as well. Bono, for example, is not out there contributing to Ireland’s economy, or anything, he is the ONE who raises awareness about AIDS in the world, not just his homeland.
Join the “Celebrity” Circle of Volunteers
Volunteering can be glamorous, but this is not the reason to become a volunteer. In the times of high prices, natural disasters, worsening environment and wars, there are ways to give back to the ones who need the most – children, sick, poor and the ones affected by natural disasters and disasters brought on them by politicians.
Every country, city and town have some volunteering opportunities; some of them even offer it at your own convenience. Just recently, my boyfriend and I decided to volunteer. (I know, we could have done it much earlier than that.) We attended the orientation, we read the information online, we corresponded with other volunteers and program coordinators and as a result, we’ve learned that there are tons of volunteering opportunities in and around our city, Washington, DC: from packaging and distributing food to the poor, cleaning and painting schools to even providing business education and consulting to non-profit organizations on how to draw more volunteers and donators.
But this is not all, some of those volunteering events are on weekends and in the afternoons, letting you get a good sleep on weekends, thus, tailoring to your own physical needs as well. This could not be any better than that. All one needs is to actually get your something-something cushy out of the house at least once a month and put your energy to a good use.
Check out the other charities; you’ll never know which one would make your heart skip a beat.
(Natalia Vodianova, a top model and founder of Naked Hearts Foundation, with cancer kids in Russia. Source: Ria Novosti)
Natalia Vodaynova - Naked Heart Organization
Petra Nemcova - Projects Abroad
Bono - ONE organization
Elton John - Doctors Without Borders
Aerosmith - Amnesty International
.jpg)
For the local volunteering opportunities in Washington, D.C. visit Candlelighters of the DC Metro Area and DC Cares.
There are volunteering organizations in every town and city of America, including charity organizations that one can contribute to via online donations. Check the following informational sites to find what is closest to your heart, mind and beliefs.
How about that for a fresh start in Spring?
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
Single, married or something in between? Find what you need for Valentine's Day.
