Supermodel named U.N. ambassador
Monday, March 7, 2005 Posted: 11:19 AM EST (1619 GMT)
GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- Supermodel Liya Kebede, best known as the face of cosmetics giant Estee Lauder, has been named a goodwill ambassador by the U.N. health agency.
The Ethiopian-born model said Monday she hoped her efforts for the World Health Organization would raise awareness of the difficulties mothers and children face in the developing world -- where millions die each year, often from easily preventable conditions.
"Having lived in Ethiopia, I've known a lot of women who have died giving childbirth," Kebede said. "It's almost even normal to hear that women are going to die giving birth."
"(But) there are actually solutions, it's not like a cancer we can't cure -- we actually have treatments," the 27-year-old model said.
WHO estimates that each year over half a million women die during childbirth and some 10 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly in the world's poorest countries.
"Imagine being pregnant and having to think about being able to survive or not," said Kebede, a mother of a 4-year-old son. She said she hopes that "these women and children's deaths no longer go unnoticed and unchallenged."
WHO aims to reduce the death rates by three-quarters by 2015 -- one of the goals adopted at the U.N. Millennium Summit in September 2000, where governments set targets for slashing poverty and disease rates to help boost economic development in poor countries.
"Liya is a perfect ambassador for this issue," said WHO chief Dr. Lee Jong-wook.
"Not only is she a young woman and a working mother -- she is an Ethiopian who has risen to the top of her industry. She has experienced firsthand the huge gap that exists between two very different worlds and she passionately wants to use her global success and visibility to help bridge this gap."
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