I’ve added new scans from Instyle, September issue of Christina Aguilera made a visit earlier this year to Rwanda for charity work. She looks awesome and definitely enjoying herself there with the people from the village.
Transcript from the article scan
Before returning to her post as a judge on NBC’s The Voice this month, Christina Aguilera travled to Rwanda with the World Food Programme, the U.N.’s frontline agency in the fight against hunger.
She has walked through the rubble of earthquake-devastated Haiti, she has visited destitute villages in Guatemala where more than half the population lives in poverty, But neither experience prepared Christina Aguilera for what she saw this summer in Rwanda. The tiny republic in east-central Africa is still reeling from the 1994 slaughter of an estimated 800,000 citizens in a state-orchestrated genocide and coping with the current influx of refugees from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. “It was very hard to witness the hopelessness in women’s and children’s eyes, “an emotional Aguilera said a couple of days after coming home from the Kigeme Refugee Camp in southern Rwanda. “I’m still processing it all.”
What was it about this organization’s aim that compelled you to visit Rwanda? The World Food Programme sets up refugee camps where families receive food for a month. The food provided is full of specific nutrients kids need to develop. That meal can lead to an education, which then leads to opportunity and the chance to offer a better life for their own children. It’s all a circle. But it has to start with eating, a basic human necessity.
How were you affected by what you saw? You just want to see a smile. You just want to see some kind of hope, anything to help inspire them to rebuild their self-esteem and their lives. All they know is how to survive. In the U.S. we take our birthdays for granted, but these kids don’t even have that one special day because their parents’ focus is on survival first.
Did you reaction surprise you? It really caught me off-guard. I felt torn about leaving – you want to stay where your efforts can make a difference.
Might this visit influence your music? Absolutely. Everything in life does, but this was particularly moving. It was tragic and inspiring and touching. It’s true that we’re each one small piece of a puzzle. But if all the small pieces work together, then great things can be accomplished.
Will you go back? I’d love to. There are other places that also need help, but I do feel some-thing in my heart for Rwanda. It can be heavy and intense but there’s still so much more that could be done.
