Press stories on Trudie Styler |
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Trudie talks to a local doctor in one of the areas of the Ecuadorian rainforest contaminated by oil exploitation
© UNICEF/Sebastian Posingis
A young pupil at Dayuma school, Ecuador, with a glass of clean water from one of the new water tanks
© UNICEF/Juan Diego Pérez
Brief biography
Trudie Styler, film producer, environmentalist, humanitarian and actor, is a long-standing supporter of UNICEF.
On a visit to Ecuador in May 2007, Trudie witnessed the environmental damage caused by oil exploitation in the Ecuadorian rainforest. She saw the devastating impact that the environmental damage and lack of safe water was having on rural communities, including the lives of the most vulnerable: women and children.
Of the 30,000 people that have been exposed to oil contamination through air, water and land in the provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana, half are children. The contamination has led to cancers including leukemia, miscarriages, skin disorders and respiratory illnesses.
Keen to help the families she met, Trudie enlisted the support of The Rainforest Fund, UNICEF and the Frente de la Defensa de la Amazonia for a pilot project in which water containers were designed and installed in areas with high levels of contamination, severe health needs, poverty and minimal access to basic services.
The specially-designed water barrels enable families, health centres and schools to have clean water, even in the most polluted areas. The water containers are a dual tank installation with a filter system collecting and converting highly toxic water into pure drinking water for storage and use.
The project proposal was devised in December 2007 with UNICEF Ecuador and implementation of the pilot began in 2008. Families selected to receive the first containers were those in the most highly contaminated areas. Working with the local community and tradesmen, the water barrels are easy to install on rural houses and shelters. Importantly, if they are maintained they last up to fifty years, providing clean water not just to families but entire communities.
Thanks to the Rainforest Fund and Trudie Styler, the pilot project has now completed its first year of work with over 100 water containers installed, providing clean water to more than 4,000 people.
For approx £330 ($500), one water container can be built and maintained giving a family, health care centre or school access to clean water for up to fifty years.
You can make a donation to Trudie's water project.
On 8 December 2008, Trudie switched on the Swarovski crystal snowflake, designed by Ingo, to start the festive season and support UNICEF’s internal partnership with Swarovski and the Knightsbridge Business Group.
In September 2006, Trudie and Jemima Khan flew to Pakistan to report on the anniversary of the Pakistan Earthquake. They travelled to Abbotabad and Balakot to see the ongoing emergency work UNICEF and partners were doing throughout the region. View a photo gallery of their visit
UNICEF was delighted to be the beneficiary of Trudie’s fantastic 2006 Christmas fundraiser, which raised over £550,000 for our Children's Emergency Fund.
Trudie has pledged her full support for UNICEF’s Unite for Children, Unite against AIDS campaign and created short films with the help of her friends Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman and Tom Hanks. The films’ simple messages have helped to raise the campaign’s profile worldwide.
In November 2005, Trudie received the highest accolade bestowed on a UNICEF Ambassador - the Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award - for her longstanding commitment to UNICEF.
Appointed as Ambassador for UNICEF in July 2004, Trudie personally pledged to raise £1 million for our work dedicating her first term to raising funds for the End Child Exploitation campaign.
In the same year, she hosted the Dolce Vita Event in December 2004 raising over £1 million pounds for UNICEF’s work worldwide and, in February 2005, she visited Tsunami-affected areas of Sri Lanka.
Trudie Styler says:
"Once you see and meet the families that are so in need of clean water you realize how lucky you are just to be able to bring up your children in a safe place with a supply of clean water. I met mothers in Ecuador who have to make an appalling decision: either to give their children no water or contaminated water, knowing that it will make them sick. UNICEF’s water project helps take this terribly unfair decision away. We are now providing clean water to health centres, schools and families. That’s not just a handful of children - it’s thousands."
