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STORY: UN / UNAIDS VICTORIA BECKHAM WRAP
TRT: 2.40
SOURCE: UNIFEED - UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGAUGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY / RECENT
RECENT – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
25 SEPTEMBER 2014, NEW YORK CITY
2. Zoom in, dais
3. Wide shot, journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Beckham, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador:
“Babies should not be born with HIV. And we can stop that, we are very close to stopping that; which is why I am sitting here now. We can’t give up. We have to keep going. We are so close.”
5. Med shot, journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Beckham, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador:
“I have supported many AIDS charities over the years. I’ve been a patron to Elton John’s AIDS foundation for over 20 years. So, I have always been involved, but in the background; and when I was lucky enough to visit South Africa a few months ago, it changed how I feel. It really did, and I came home thinking I have a responsibility, and for some reason, people would listen to what I have to say.”
7. Med shot, journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Beckham, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador:
“I am delighted to be a global goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS.”
9. Zoom in, Beckham with UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Beckham, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador:
“When I got to Africa I decided I wanted to learn more I met with UNAIDS, Mothers-to-Mothers charity, as well as Born Free Africa, and it was actually Born Free Africa that took me to Africa, and it really was life-changing. The women that I met, the children that I met, to work with the charities and see with my own eyes and my own ears the hard work that is going on.”
11. Wide shot, Sidibé and Beckham
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Beckham, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador:
“I am a woman and I am a mother, and everybody deserves the right to health. It shouldn’t be dependent on where you live or where you were born. And I want to make it possible for every woman to have a healthy child. As a mother I’d do anything for my kids. And every woman has that right. And I can be their voice-piece. I can speak up because they are not here.”
13. Wide shot, Sidibé and Beckham
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Victoria Beckham, UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador:
“It’s letting people know that there is treatment available. And so, it’s also supporting these women because when these women find out that they have HIV they need to be supported. People are scared. People don’t understand that there is medication. So, I think we have to, we have to support the women and then we have to get them the medication
15. Zoom out, Sidibé and Beckham walk away
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has appointed leading fashion designer Victoria Beckham as UNAIDS International Goodwill Ambassador.
The announcement was made at a special event held during the 69th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
At a joint press conference with Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé, Beckham
Said “babies should not be born with HIV. And we can stop that, we are very close to stopping that; which is why I am sitting here now. We can’t give up. We have to keep going. We are so close.”
In February this year Beckham visited HIV clinics in Cape Town, South Africa, where she learned about the importance of antiretroviral therapy and about how children are being left behind in accessing treatment.
She said her visit to South Africa “changed” her and “came home thinking I have a responsibility, and for some reason, people would listen to what I have to say.”
In her new role as an Ambassador for UNAIDS Beckham will work towards ensuring that all children are born free from HIV and that children and women who are living with and affected by HIV have access to medicines and care.
Speaking to UNIFEED the new Goodwill Ambassador said she was “delighted to be a global goodwill ambassador for UNAIDS.”
She praised the women and children she met in Africa and that she had the opportunity to “see with my own eyes and my own ears the hard work that is going on.”
Beckham said “I am a woman and I am a mother, and everybody deserves the right to health. It shouldn’t be dependent on where you live or where you were born. And I want to make it possible for every woman to have a healthy child. As a mother I’d do anything for my kids. And every woman has that right. And I can be their voice-piece. I can speak up because they are not here.”
She said her role will be “letting people know that there is treatment available” as well as “supporting these women because when these women find out that they have HIV they need to be supported. People are scared.”
Antiretroviral therapy can reduce the risk of a mother living with HIV passing the virus to her child to below 5 percent. However, in 2013, one third of pregnant women living with HIV did not have access to the life-saving medicines and 240 000 children became infected with HIV.
In 2013, less than half of all children who were exposed to HIV were tested for the virus within the optimum three-month period and only 24 percent had access to life-saving treatment.
Without treatment, half of all children born with HIV will die by the age of two and the majority will die by the age of five.
