Charlize Theron honoured by World Economic Forum for HIV work

Academy award winning actress and HIV and AIDS campaigner Charlize Theron has been awarded the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for her commitment to improving the lives of African youth, in particular those suffering from HIV and AIDS.

Theron was awarded the Crystal Award last week at the opening of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland for works through her foundation, the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP).

Theron, who was born in South Africa, becomes the second African woman to receive the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award. Yvonne Chaka-Chaka, renowned singer-songwriter and Goodwill Ambassador for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, received the award last January for her tireless work on major global health issues affecting women and children, in particular malaria control.

The Crystal Award is given each year to successful artists who have used their art to ‘improve the state of the world.’

CTAOP works to prevent HIV in African youth and is supported by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Theron, was in Davos to represent CTAOP, also had her picture taken for the Global Fund’s Big Push campaign during the opening of the forum.
 The Big Push is a campaign created by the Global Fund to raise support amongst the world’s leaders
in business, politics, arts, academia and sports to fully fund global health goals.

The Global Fund is an international financing institution that invests 
the world’s money to save lives. To date, programmes supported by the Global Fund have provided AIDS treatment for 4.2 million people, anti-tuberculosis treatment for 9.7 million people and 310 million insecticide-treated nets for the prevention of malaria.