Global Oxfam Ambassador and award-winning actress Dame Helen Mirren has donated the silver jacket she wore in her 1984 film 2010 to Oxfam, to raise money towards the charity’s West Africa Food Crisis Response.
Helen Mirren wore the jacket in the film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, in which she played a Russian Astronaut. The donation is a silver astronaut-style jacket. With badges of the NCA and USA flag on the front, and a large embroidered 2010 on the back. The film itself was nominated for 5 Academy awards in 1985 including Best Costume Design.
Credit/Copyright: Oxfam
“I didn’t think when we were making 2010: The Year We Make Contact that in 2010 it would be possible for 10 million people to go hungry because of lack of action by the international community,” said Helen Mirren, “but in West Africa this year people were forced to eat leaves and berries in order to survive.”
Funds raised from the sale of the jacket will go directly towards helping the 10 million people who have been affected by a horrendous food crisis in the West African countries of Niger, Chad, and Mali. Over the past few months the severe lack of food has meant there is widespread malnourishment and extreme hunger throughout the region. Oxfam is helping by donating various short-term and long-term responses, including agricultural harvest tools, replacement livestock and rainwater harvesting and irrigation systems.
“I’m hoping the auction of this iconic jacket will help Oxfam respond now and in the future to the crisis in West Africa,” said Mirren. “Oxfam doesn’t just respond when disaster hits but works to help people cope with erratic rainfall and annual drought all year round. I have travelled with Oxfam to Africa in the past and know their aid reaches the people who need it.”
Oxfam is asking fans to put down a £10 bid towards the jacket. The lottery will run from Monday the 8th of November to Monday 1st of December, with the lucky winners name being drawn from a hat after two weeks.
Visit www.oxfam.org.uk/westafrica for more information on Oxfam’s West Africa Food Crisis Response. And visit www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/helenmirren to bid for a chance to win the jacket.
