TANZANIA: ACTRESS SUSAN SARANDON VISITS A CHILDREN'S AIDS CAMP IN TANZANIA AS A SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED NATIONS CHILDRENS FUND

Record ID: 389349

  • Title: TANZANIA: ACTRESS SUSAN SARANDON VISITS A CHILDREN'S AIDS CAMP IN TANZANIA AS A SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE UNITED NATIONS CHILDRENS FUND
  • Date: 23rd May 2000
  • Summary: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, TANZANIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) MV SUSAN SARANDON WALKING/ JOINS IN WITH DANCING GROUP (2 SHOTS) WIDE PEOPLE WATCHING MV SARANDON DANCING SV PHOTOGRAPHER MV SARANDON UNVEILS UNICEF PLAQUE SLV SARANDON WALKING ACROSS ROPE FOOT BRIDGE SLV 2 ALLIGATORS MV/LAS SARANDON AT A BABY CLINIC/ BABY BEING WEIGHED (2 SHOTS) MV SARANDON FEEDING BABY/ MOTHER AND BABY (2 S
  • Embargoed: 7th June 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TANZANIA
  • Country: Tanzania
  • Topics: Entertainment
  • Reuters ID: LVA4SRM119XEOU5P5N4UGIZFD3Z1
  • Story Text: Like so many other Hollywood stars, American actress Susan Sarandon is dedicating her celebrity status to a good cause.As special representative of the United Nations' Children's Fund, Susan Sarandon has been to Tanzania to visit a children's AIDS camp.
    She's best known as an academy award winning actress, but Susan Sarandon says she's more passionate about easing the plight of those in need than she is about anything in Hollywood.She's also quite fond of dancing.
    But it was the urge to help she says, that brought her to northwestern Tanzania last week.
    As special representative to the United Nations Children's' Fund she says she had to see for herself the enormous problems confronting children in Africa...in a search for possible solutions.
    "I'm here because I'm educating myself about the problems with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa, where it is so extreme in Tanzania alone there'll be a million orphans this year - so I came on this specific trip so I can go back and bear witness in the first person to some of these things and to try and humanize them rather than just speak of statistics, I can speak of my personal experience of some of the things I have seen and that have moved me."
    And as an actress who has moved millions in such films as Dead Man Walking, Susan Sarandon is well aware of the power her celebrity wields.
    But in this new role she is primarily here to watch and learn....and dramas like this, focussing on AIDS and promiscuity, are at least an indication that UNICEF's education programs are having an effect.
    Susan says "I've been very impressed with the joy and celebrative nature of the people here, and the fact that they are not hopeless in the face of these horrifying statistics of HIV/AIDS."
    But there's more to UNICEF's job in Africa than AIDS prevention.Malaria, and a raft of other diseases which often decimate entire villages are also at the forefront of UNICEF's prevention and immunization programs.No matter how remote such villages may be.
    Homelessness is another major problem throughout Tanzania, and Africa in general.Here in Mwanza on Lake Victoria, the Kuleana Child Rights Centre - with the support of UNICEF - helps homeless children move from a life on the streets, to something approaching normality.
    Robert Donald says "Here at Kuleana they help me with many things like education, health and clothing, They also try to educate the community on child rights.That lady who came here, I was happy to see her because she likes to help children, and I'm happy because she can relate and understand our problems."
    Susan Sarandon says"If my celebrity can shine a little light for some period of time to bring some of these images and some of this information into the mainstream, then I feel I have been successful.
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