Audrey Hepburn

My hero is Audrey Hepburn! She worked with UNICEF to help kids in need. I really like her compassion for kids. I think without her all of these children in need would be suffering which would make me sad. I hope that you will enjoy reading about her and all the amazing things that she did to help children in need.

Audrey Hepburn's childhood was hard because of the war that was going on. Also her father left her so it was just her, her mom and two half brothers and they had a terribly harsh time. What led her to becoming a hero was her compassion for children because of what happened in her childhood. She did not have enough food during the war and she got sick from malnutrition. She saw her uncle get killed during the war. She also did ballet to collect money for the Dutch Resistance.

Later in her life she became a famous actress but she didn't forget her childhood and started working with UNICEF which is an organization that helps children who suffer in many poor countries. Audrey Hepburn noticed that many of these children were suffering from the effects of living in war-torn, drought ridden areas of the world, as well as lack of food and lack of healthcare. She wanted to change that so she started to go on missions to help all of the children that were suffering as the ambassador for UNICEF.

Some of the missions she went on were really difficult. Probably the hardest mission she went on was the one in Ethiopia. The one in Ethiopia was hard because she visited a orphanage in Mek'ele that had 500 starving children. She sent UNICEF to get food. Sometimes she would hug the children and would try to make them laugh. She also told Canada, Europe and the United States about the problem in Ethiopia and how they could help. After she went to Ethiopia she started making more field trips. Some of the trips were to Turkey for polio vaccine, Venezuela for training programmes for women, and Ecuador for children living and working on the street.

She also helped out in Guatemala and Honduras in projects to provide drinking water, in El Salvador for radio literacy projects, and Bangladesh to see schools. She even went to Thailand for projects for impoverished children, Vietnam for nutrition projects and Sudan for camps for displaced children. That's a lot of countries! If I had to do that I would be so tired. Also when she wasn't going on missions she tirelessly was still working for UNICEF. Some of the things she did were testifying before US Congress, taking part in the World Summit for Children, launching UNICEF's state of the world children's report, and giving many speeches and interviews promoting UNICEF's work. After all her work she won the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in December 1992. Also that year she became ill with cancer but she still continued her work for UNICEF.

Audrey Hepburn has inspired me because of all the good things she has done with UNICEF. Also imagine someone that had the courage to go to poor countries and help all the suffering children, even if it's over 1000 children! She wanted all those children to be well. I bet all the children that she has helped felt that she was their hero. And even though the children that suffer today may not know her, when they see UNICEF they know that help is coming.

I hope that you enjoyed reading all about her. Also thank you to John Isaac, Audrey's photographer, for answering all my questions to help me to get to know about her more than I knew before. I really appreciate that not many children get a chance to make such a connection!