Award-winning screen actress Nicole Kidman was Thursday named as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which she pledged to support through travels to devastated countries where its projects are carried out.
Introducing Ms. Kidman in New York, UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said, “We are honoured to have Nicole join the UNIFEM family.”
– Her role is to raise awareness of the pressing issues that women face around the world and to amplify the message that the contribution of women is essential to development, to the building of just and peaceful societies, she added.
Ms. Kidman said she was “honoured” to become a Goodwill Ambassador, adding she was not pretending to be an expert on any of the issues that UNIFEM addresses, but was looking forward to learning and lending her support to “help make visible the very real and immediate problems.”
The Academy Award-winning Australian actress said she plans to travel with UNIFEMs Executive Director this year to find out more about the organizations work and to meet with women, hear their stories and understand first-hand the issues they face.
– The countries that we are considering possible visits to include Sudan, the DR Congo, Liberia, Afghanistan and Cambodia, and that is just a beginning, Ms. Kidman told a packed news conference at UN Headquarters.
– I am especially interested in helping to give visibility to the pandemic of violence against women and UNIFEM manages a UN Trust Fund to end violence against women and as I travel I will be visiting the projects that they have set up, she added.
Ms. Kidman said she first became aware of UNIFEM because of its work in Cambodia with rural women and then got in touch with Ms. Heyzer to see how she could lend her support.
The actress, who last year starred in a movie entitled “The Interpreter” in which she played a UN interpreter, now joins a small circle of UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassadors that includes Princess Basma of Jordan, and the Honourable Phoebe Asiyo of Kenya.
Over the years, many persons of international stature have lent their names, talents and time to support UN system organizations, with many designated as Goodwill Ambassadors or celebrity advocates.
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