Alek Wek Quotes

Oftentimes people ask me, 'Why is it that you're so focused on helping the hungry and diseased in strange parts of the world?'

I do commercials, but I also go to Sudan as an ambassador for UNICEF.

When I was 13, I read 'Et la paix dans le monde, Docteur?' a physician's account of working with Medecins Sans Fontieres during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. It was this book that inspired me to work for MSF.

The work that Partners in Health do in Haiti benefits the whole world.

People in Ethiopia, the Sudan, etc., don't know Audrey Hepburn, but they recognize the name UNICEF. When they see UNICEF, their faces light up, because they know that something is happening. In the Sudan, for example, they call a water pump 'UNICEF.'

AIDS and malaria and TB are national security issues. A worldwide program to get a start on dealing with these issues would cost about $25 billion... It's, what, a few months in Iraq.

We assume that we've come so far as compassionate citizens of the world if we do choose to read the news, yet the attitude towards life can be one where we put blinders on and forget that there are civil wars going on. It's easy to forget that there are so many people starving to death every single day.

I've been a Goodwill Ambassador for the UNICEF and the UNICEF family for more than twelve years.

We must do all we can to help improve the deplorable human rights situation of the North Korean people.

I wrote 'The Blue Sweater' to inspire more people to become engaged in working to solve the problems of global poverty.

Can we really believe that we are living a good life, an ethically decent life if we don't do anything serious to help reduce poverty around the world and help save the lives of children or adults who are likely to die if we don't increase the amount of aid we are giving.

I consider the fact that thousands of children die each day from starvation and a lack of medicine a crisis for humanity and a problem we must collectively attempt to solve.

I'm involved with health care/medical supply delivery to Africa and started a non-profit organization to bring supplies to Congo.

Our humanitarian aid system is sick and needs to be fixed. It needs to get a reality check and get back humanity.

Before I became a SEAL, I'd done humanitarian work around the world - with refugee families in Bosnia, with unaccompanied children in Rwanda, with kids who lost limbs to land mines in Cambodia.

People feel that building a rocket for Mars is an exciting project, but if you see the refugees around the world and the millions of homeless people, then for me it's insulting that people are fantasizing about leaving planet Earth and going wherever.

I've been a UNICEF ambassador since I was 17.

The Global Fund is a central player in the progress being achieved on HIV, TB and malaria. It channels resources to help countries fight these diseases. I believe in its impact because I have seen it firsthand.

I welcome the work that the Clinton Global Initiative has done with groups and individuals like Bono and all that's happened around the world.

There is never a humanitarian solution for a humanitarian crisis. The solutions for the humanitarian crisis are always political ones.

In addition to not stopping the spread of Ebola, isolating countries will make it harder to respond to Ebola, creating an even greater humanitarian and health care emergency. Importantly, isolating countries won't keep Ebola contained and away from American shores.

Well-spent aid money is saving lives for a few thousand dollars per life saved.

George W. Bush is very popular in Sub-Saharan Africa. Why? Because of PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief.

The Clinton Foundation has been able to help millions of people - over 10 million with HIV/AIDS alone - saved countless lives. It's extremely important to global health. They've done some really great things.

North Korean defectors who speak out against the regime always feel nervous. We never know what the North Korean government is planning. It's really difficult for us to show our faces and speak out, but we feel obligated to do something to inform people about the ongoing tragedy inside North Korea.