Academy Award winning actress and South Africa native Charlize Theron is heading up an effort to build a foster home for children in her home country.
Her organization, the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) is donating $50,000 toward the construction of the home for orphaned and abandoned children and has challenged Citizen Effect to match those funds by having Citizen Philanthropists fund-raise $5,000 each. In the next month, Citizen Effect will be recruiting those ten philanthropists. To find out more, check out www.citizeneffect.org/p/ctaop.
“We are excited about this partnership because our goal is to help the children of Cloetesville live healthy, productive lives and we cannot go at this alone,” said Theron. “Citizen Effect allows us to get more passionate people involved and have a greater overall impact.”
Citizen Effect encourages people to choose their own philanthropic project, raise money through creative means and then see the direct impact of their work. CEO Dan Morrison says anyone can be a Citizen Philanthropist – a high school student, a young professional, or a small business owner.
“All it takes is the passion to bring your friends and family together to help make a direct impact in the lives of others,” said Morrison.
South African NGO Home from Home will be coordinating the project in Cloetesville. Their approach is to include a housemother to encourage the creation of a family unit among the kids.
Theron was born in Benoni, Transvaal Province, South Africa and her first language is Afrikaans. She grew up on her parents’ farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg. In 2003, she became the first person from any African nation to win an Academy Award in a major acting category when she won Best Actress for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the film Monster. Two years later, she received another Academy Award nomination for her performance in North Country.
She founded CTAOP in partnership with the Entertainment Industry Foundation to help impoverished children in Africa, especially those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Theron is very politically and socially engaged. She’s involved in women’s rights organizations, and marched for abortion rights. She is a supporter of same-sex marriage and attended a march in Fresno, California in 2009. She’s also an active member of PETA and is one of dozens of celebrities to pose naked in their anti-fur campaign.
Photo courtesy of CTAOP.
