Photo credit: UN Photo/Cia Pak
Charlize Theron
As a Messenger for Peace, Academy Award-winning actress Charlize Theron focusses her work on the prevention of HIV and elimination of violence against women. She founded the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) in 2007, whose mission is to advance and invest in the health, education and safety of youth living in Southern Africa. CTAOP supports transformative, locally-led change by partnering with and supporting community-based organizations that support young people, their sexual and reproductive health and rights (including staying safe from HIV), and the prevention of gender-based violence.
The programs aim to reach youth between the ages of 10-20 years old, bringing critical resources like access to youth friendly healthcare, sexual and reproductive health education, life skills and psychosocial support – all of which empower young people to keep themselves and their peers healthy and safe.
Since its founding CTAOP has reached over 3.7M young people through the grassroots programmes it supports and awarded over $10M in grants, making an important contribution to Sustainable Development Goal 3 and in particular target 3.3 in the fight against communicable diseases and ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Ms. Theron has also been a strong advocate and voice for ending all forms of violence against women and girls using her significant platform and voice to promote gender equity and support the empowerment of women.