“The spirit of the Haitian people — despite what they’ve experienced — moved me so much,” says the 28-year-old actress, who aims to raise public awareness of the long-term needs of Haiti’s people.

The effects of the tragedy, which caused some 300,000 deaths and displaced about 2 million people, will take years to overcome. “The long-term problems that Haitians are now facing are really only the beginning,” Sienna says. “We must help rebuild, yes, but that includes providing safe, healthy environments for everyone.”

Watch a video about Sienna’s trip below!

“Haiti is still in desperate need of our attention, and our aid. The column inches may fade, but we must not forget the survivors” - Sienna Miller

The bid for a ‘Stunning Rebecca Minkoff studded brown leather shoulder bag and a signed photograph of Sienna’ currently stands at £69. CLICK HERE to view the action.

Artists’ Earthquake Action

Sienna Miller and Richard Curtis are among the judges of a new short film competition seeking to encourage young film-makers to produce “bankbuster” videos on issues being highlighted by the Robin Hood Tax campaign.

Make a short film (60 — 90 seconds long) that shows us what you think of the idea of governments taxing the banks to raise money for the poor and the planet. Get it judged by top film and advertising talent and win some great prizes.
The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on banks that would give billions to tackle poverty and climate change, here and abroad. The public have bailed out the banks to the tune of £20 trillion in total. In the UK alone the bailout cost £31,250 per person. Isn’t it now time society was paid back?
Our message to governments is clear: “When you tax the banks, don’t just help yourself to the money, make sure the money goes to helping the poor and the planet.”

We think the Robin Hood Tax could be the most important idea of this generation. What do you think?

Sienna Miller’s segment for CNN’s Connector of the Day aired yesterday (May 17) and can be viewed above. Sienna talked briefly about her recent trips to Congo and Haiti, her  involvement with the International Medical Corps and answered a view questions from fans. I’ve also made screencaptures which you can view below.

This year’s Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign, which aims to raise more than £1m for cancer research over the next six weeks
The singer Kylie Minogue has joined actor Sienna Miller and model Claudia Schiffer in being captured by celebrity photographer Mario Testino wearing nothing but a broad grin and a silk sheet printed with the target logo of the fashion industry’s campaign against breast cancer.

The images launch this year’s Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign, which aims to raise more than £1m for cancer research over the next six weeks through a range of special clothing in high street, online and designer collections.

It is the first time that Minogue has joined in a breast cancer campaign since her own successful treatment five years ago. “I wholeheartedly support their efforts to raise funds for the vital work undertaken by Breakthrough Breast Cancer,” she said.

The annual fashion industry campaign was started in New York by the designer Ralph Lauren after his friend Nina Hyde, fashion editor of the Washington Post, died of the disease.

Since its launch in the UK – where more than 46,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year – in 1996 it has raised more than £10.5m. From the original logo T-shirt, it has grown to include a wardrobe full of specially designed garments, with not less than 30% of the purchase price going directly to the charity.

While Minogue was being treated in 2005, one of the engagements she had to cancel was an appearance at a cancer charity ball in London. Instead she sent a defiant message: “I am a cancer patient. I aim to be a cancer survivor.”

She had to abandon the Australian leg of her Showgirl world tour when the disease was diagnosed, but was as good as her word in November 2006, taking up the tour again in a string of concerts described by one Australian critic as “nothing less than a triumph”.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

I came to Haiti as an ambassador for the International Medical Corps, an organization that I have been working with for over a year. Their teams arrived 22 hours after the devastating earthquake of 12^th January and have been a powerful and leading medical presence ever since.

I arrived in the Dominican Republic from London on the night of March 18^th, and met up with my friends Margaret Aguirre from International Medical Corps, and David Serota, a talented filmmaker who has come to document the long-term health care needs that lie ahead for Haiti.

We flew the following morning to Port-au-Prince and were met in the chaos by Andy Gleadle, our operations director, (the kind of ‘man mountain’ that you hope to be around in disaster zones like this one) and were briefed on the security issues we potentially faced. For starters, the local jail was destroyed in the quake, and as a result, 5,000 prisoners are free and roaming the streets. There were serious security problems in Haiti before the earthquake, but of course everything has now intensified. Three NGO workers were kidnapped the previous week, so Andy told us what to expect and how we would be protected (a two-car convoy at all times, watchmen by the tents etc). Afterward we drove to the guesthouse to meet the team, drop our bags and then head out to start the day.

Our first stop was St Louis, a neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, to visit Dr. Joseline Marhone. I sat with her in the shade of a tree, her patients surrounding us on beds in tents nearby, and asked her to share her experiences with us. Her house was destroyed in the quake, but thankfully she and her son were in the basement at the time and survived. Her two cousins upstairs did not survive. I found it so difficult to ask the questions that I suspected would be hard for her to answer. Journalism of this sort does not come naturally to me, but she explained that it helped her to talk about it. So she speaks, with a resilience and strength far superior to mine upon hearing her. She was the director of nutrition for the Ministry of Health in Haiti. The nursing school where she taught collapsed, killing every one of her students. She told us that she had found that the best thing for her to deal with her enormous pain was to keep busy and carry on doing what she does so well. To date, on the grounds of the ruined church where she once worshipped, she has treated over 4,000 people. International Medical Corps has provided her with the medical supplies and volunteers that she needs in order to do this. She is so beautiful and open, walking around with a smile that melts, wearing the same long blue cotton skirt that she was wearing on January 12^th when the earthquake struck.

My role here as ambassador is simple: we need to raise awareness of the road ahead for Haiti – and raise a significant amount of new funding through appeals to the public. Most people just don’t realize that the problems Haiti faces are really only beginning. This country was in desperate need before the earthquake hit. The problems they are now facing are tenfold. The onset of the rainy season, which is imminent, means that the temporary camps that are housing hundreds of thousands of people will be washed away. Water-borne diseases will be rife, nutritional needs will become even more prevalent and there is inevitably a massive increase in sexual and gender-based violence within the camps. Donors have been incredibly generous, but as always, much, much more is needed.

After a fitful night’s sleep in a tent with Marge, (gunshots, roosters, crying babies, the works) we have a cup of coffee and set off at the crack of dawn to visit some of the mobile clinics and projects set up in those early days after the earthquake by the stunningly beautiful and clever Dina Prior, who heads International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response Team. We drove to Petit Goave, three hours outside of Port-au-Prince. The coastal regions are far more difficult to access, and it takes an hour by boat to reach the small beach community of Platon. It looks like heaven to me. The kind of untouched postcard paradise we westerners are constantly searching for. White sand so fine it feels like flour, azure blue sea and old handmade fishing nets thrown haphazardly over the ancient palm trees. We are greeted with smiles and cheers by a beautiful group of men, women and children, so grateful for the work that is being done. However, they are hungry, incredibly poor, and virtually cut off from the essentials they need. Until International Medical Corps arrived here, they faced a two-hour journey just to receive any medical attention at all.

Later that day we headed to Petionville, an enormous displacement camp, to visit a new facility we have within the compounds. These people, like most, are living in tents, except that this camp (or rather city) is in a giant basin-like valley. When the rains come, and they already have started, this and its 60,000 inhabitants could be washed away. Logistically moving that many people, with the imminent monsoon and hurricane season lingering like a time bomb, is a terrifying reality that they are all facing. We met up with my friend Sean Penn, who is doing incredible work here through his organization, the Jenkins-Penn Foundation. They are providing medical care and devoting their energies toward the protection of these vulnerable people. We discussed ways of collaborating and were taken on a tour of the camp by Sean and Pastor St. Cyr (who is holding daily services for those living here, a vital task for a devoutly religious population). There is an area where tents balance precariously on the edge of a ditch that drops 10 feet into what is now a dry riverbed. When the rains fell a week ago, that ditch became a raging river and two children very nearly lost their lives. International Medical Corps is bringing in floodlights to try and prevent disasters like these from becoming a reality.

The following morning, we headed back to the General Hospital, where I spent a few hours with two fabulous psychiatrists, Dr. Lynne Jones and Dr. Peter Hughes. Obviously there are massive psychological repercussions to a traumatic event like this, and previous mental illnesses have been exacerbated in many cases. They are treating patients in the general hospital suffering from a range of illnesses from psychosis to epilepsy. The care being given here is a vast contrast to what is happening at the old mental hospital next door we visited later. It is beyond anything I could imagine. This being the poorest country in the western hemisphere, education is not at the standard that we are fortunate to have in the developed world. The treatment here is archaic, the conditions inhumane. The people I saw were obviously seriously unwell. Some were screaming, some blissfully happy, very few are clothed and during my visit, most stood in tiny rooms, naked and covered in excrement. They push their heads through sharp and rusting holes in the iron doors to have a look at us, screaming for help. A mental institution is an intimidating thing to see for someone with no experience in this area like myself, but this made “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” look like The Ritz. It was shocking and like everywhere in Haiti, desperately in need of funding.

The amazing thing is that this country has a spirit that very quickly gets under your skin. The people are friendly and welcoming, and everywhere I look, I witness examples of human courage beyond imagination. They are sticking together through what has been the most devastating earthquake in a hundred years and it is vital for the various NGO groups to do the same.

I suppose what I am attempting to do is use whatever means I have to generate some sort of attention for a country I feel utterly passionate about. I am not a writer, but one thing I have always somehow managed to do is garner press attention. I am now hoping to exploit that for a very good cause.

Please, if you can, donate now to International Medical Corps – an organization that is doing this incredible work, saving the lives and building a future for these beautiful people. To learn more about them and about how you can help their efforts in Haiti please visit www.imcworldwide.org.



Hollywood actress Sienna Miller is the latest celebrity to back the Evening Star Save the Blue Cross campaign as the stars continue to come out for the treasured animal shelter.

The 28-year-old star of films such as The Edge of Love and GI Joe, has sent a generous message of support as well as posing with one of the campaign posters.

Miss Miller, who is also a model and a fashion designer, has also been joined in the condemnation of the Blue Cross proposals to close the rescue centre in Walton High Street, Felixstowe, by ever-popular singer Des O’Connor – who is due to perform at the Spa Pavilion next month – and former Home and Away actor Bryan Wiseman.

A spokeswoman for the campaign said: “We had had some lovely words of encouragement from Sienna.

“We have been thrilled with the way celebrities have been supporting us in the campaign and we are hoping others will join us over the next few weeks.

“Their interest shows that concern for what is happening to animal rescue shelters is important to people far and wide.

“We will continue to fight to keep the Felixstowe Blue Cross open and hope the charity will be persuaded not to close it.”

Mr Wiseman, who has also been in the Australian version of Come Dine with Me, met up with Des O’Connor before he went on stage at the Performing Arts Centre in Wollongong.

“I run a foster pet scheme here in Sydney and feel really angry that they want to close the Blue Cross,” he said.

“No matter where we are in the world, we humans should be doing all we can to help animals.

“If everyone cared, we wouldn’t have homeless animals!”

Campaigners are doing all they can to put pressure on the Blue Cross, which is set to make its final decision next month.

Other celebrities who have joined the campaign include comedian Joe Pasquale, actor Brian Blessed and spoon-bending Uri Geller.

Source: Eveningstandard.co.uk

The auction will take place at the celebrity screening of “Ghosts of Cite Soleil”, a documentary about Haiti at the exclusive Electric Cinema on Feb 26.

Though the actress would be unable to attend herself, she hopes that her donation will bring some relief to the quake-hit area.

“Haiti is still in desperate need of our attention, and our aid. The column inches may fade, but we must not forget the survivors. Please attend the ‘Ghosts of Cite Soleil’ screening to learn more about this country that has touched us all, whilst raising vital funds for Haiti one of the poorest countries in the world,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted her saying.

The event will be hosted by Mica Paris and Jenni Falconer with a meet and greet reception with Martine McCutcheon, Cerys Matthews, Charlie Brooks, Status Quo, Duran Duran, Boy George, Tamzin Outhwaite, Calum Best and Harry Lloyd. Director Ridley Scott has also donated personal items to the event for auction.

Source: Timesofindia.com

Sienna Miller, Global Ambassador for International Medical Corps, makes a passionate call to action in a public service announcement (PSA) to assist survivors of the 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti last Tuesday.

“The need left by this earthquake is enormous,” says Sienna Miller. “Thousands need medical services and time is of the essence. If the injured do not receive medical care quickly, treatable ailments like fractures and open wounds can become life-threatening. The more people who come together and offer their support, the more lives we will be able to save.”

Funds raised through the PSA (http://www.imcworldwide.org/SiennaPSA) will directly support International Medical Corps’ emergency response in Haiti and save lives by helping acquire what is desperately needed on the ground, including medicines, medical equipment, food, clean water, and other emergency relief items. Donations can be made by visiting International Medical Corps’ website – www.imcworldwide.org – and by texting HAITI to 85944.

International Medical Corps was on the ground in Haiti providing emergency medical care just 23 hours after the earthquake struck. “They are working around the clock to save as many lives as possible,” says Miller. “I hope this PSA will shed light on the incredible work they are doing in Haiti and encourage others to support it.”

In Port-au-Prince, International Medical Corps is working at the Hopital de l’Universite d’Etat d’Haiti, a 700-bed hospital, as well as supporting small health clinics throughout the city. An International Medical Corps mobile medical unit is also in Leogane, the epicenter of Tuesday’s earthquake, providing emergency medical care.

“We are so thankful to Sienna for speaking out for the people of Haiti,” says Rebecca Milner, VP of Institutional Advancement for International Medical Corps. “Every donation made as a result of this PSA will save lives on the ground in Haiti.”

International Medical Corps’ Emergency Response draws on 25 years experience in emergency settings, including last September’s earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia, and the massive 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. Donate to the International Medical Corps by texting HAITI to 85944 or visit www.imcworldwide.org.

The PSA can be viewed at: http://www.imcworldwide.org/SiennaPSA .

International Medical Corps relieves the suffering of those impacted by war, natural disaster and disease by delivering vital health care services that focus on training, helping devastated populations return to self-reliance.

SOURCE International Medical Corps

RELATED LINKS
http://www.imcworldwide.org