Kristin Davis and Djimon Hounsou are personally fundraising for the relief efforts in drought-stricken Sahel.
The Hollywood actors are each hoping to raise $5,000 toward the campaign of Oxfam and its partners to reach more than a million people needing aid in West Africa. Both have been longtime Oxfam celebrity ambassadors.
Just a few days ago, the United Nations increased its funding request for the region, citing deteriorating humanitarian situation there. The Sahel appeal now stands at $1.6 billion, more than double the original funding request of $724 million.
Davis, who has travelled with Oxfam to Uganda, Haiti, Ethiopia and Kenya, said in her personal fundraising page: “One of my main goals with working and traveling with Oxfam is to get the truth — the truth of what’s really happening to people around the world — the truth that doesn’t seem to make headlines in newspapers.”
Like Davis, Hounsou bemoaned the lack of media attention toward the food crisis in the Sahel.
“The people there are facing drought and a severe food crisis,” he said. “To some of us, this problem is a world away and is easy to ignore, but I implore you to pay attention.”
Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.
