By Tim Saunders on
New Zealand-born singing sensation Hayley Westenra has recorded a special message for UNICEF.
The 21-year-old shot to stardom in 2003 when her first international release, Pure, went to number 1 on the British charts. Now she is the youngest UNICEF Ambassador in the world, and she has recorded a special public service announcement asking people to join her by becoming a UNICEF Global Parent.
“With UNICEF, your contributions go further,” she says during the advertisement. “[It] helps not just one child, but many, many children all around the world.”
In 2005, Westenra visited Ghana with the charity to see firsthand the work UNICEF does. While there, the young star launched ’Hayley’s Bikes for Ghana’, a project that has already provided 6,000 bikes for children so they can attend school and find a better future. She also supports ‘PlayPumps for Ghana’, a project which aims to take clean water to over 6,000 children and their families.
“Meeting young people that are the same as me but with such a different world of opportunity has a profound affect on you,” she said after her visit. “I aspire to be a singer, which seems so unessential compared with their simple desire for a regular cup of clean water. You can’t go somewhere like that, meet those people and come back unchanged.”
Westenra is also involved in the Women’s Environmental Network, a group that raises awareness of environmental issues affecting women.
Hayley’s latest PSA can be viewed here.
Copyright © 2008 Look to the Stars
