Children Mending Hearts on Their Congo Trip With Sienna
Our crew has safely returned from the Congo, and no doubt lives were changed forever. One of our lovely advisors had worked with Sienna Miller a couple of years ago and felt strongly that she would be interested in the work that Children Mending Hearts were doing in Congo. We asked Sienna to attend our fundraiser in February but Sienna was in England and unable to join us. Her agent did attend the fundraiser at the House of Blues and had been moved to tears, obviously touched by what he had seen and heard. A few days later we met with Sienna. I must admit I felt a little trepidation, as when folks in the entertainment industry express a desire to get involved, I assume there is some unforeseen agenda at play. I guess, because my husband and his partner are so entrenched in the industry, I have become slightly jaded and alternately suspicious.
When I met with Sienna, I was instantly at ease and happily proven wrong. Her passion and desire to help were so transparently honest and from the heart. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about all the incredible charity work she has done, from England’s version of Make A Wish, to an awe inspiring project in Mumbai. Sadly, the media don’t tend to include such accomplishments in their diatribes.
What most touched me was that Sienna wanted to get on a plane and go find out for herself, to travel, without question, to one of the most heinous and dangerous places in the world for a woman to be at this moment. She was ready to buy a ticket, no questions asked. She wanted to help. She wanted to educate herself so she could speak with knowledge, alternately raising awareness to those in need.
Sienna was doggedly determined. We just had to find a way to get her into Congo - safely and quickly. I was not able to go on this trip as I had just returned from Congo, am in the middle of writing my masters thesis, working on my next trip, and most importantly, I could not leave the two little girls who call me mom and hop on a plane so soon after my last trip.
We came up with a couple of different NGOs that could get her there and after some research, we decided on the International Medical Corps. I had visited a couple of their clinics during my last trip, and coincidentally the timing would work out perfectly. Additionally, my husband Grant and I had highlighted the IMC at our last event. We arranged for Sienna to meet with the IMC, thus began her journey.
David Serota and I then met with my pals at TakePart as we thought it would be nice to do a video looking through a woman’s eyes. We wanted to capture her perspective while in Congo, where in some villages, two out of every three woman are raped and tortured. David’s outline was brilliant and TakePart, as usual, was supportive and enthusiastic.
We then decided to have Sienna hand out Children Mending Heart’s T-shirts to the children in the camps. This was immensely important to me as the children in Congo designed the shirts during my last trip and to have them have a clean shirt that they actually designed so touched my heart.
Please forgive me if I get so worked up over a T-shirt as I am acutely aware that my feeble attempts to bring some joy to these children will not solve the bigger problem. But if I can just make one child smile or laugh or feel some modicum of hope, then my job is done.
Although it’s vitally important to throw money at the problem, it’s equally crucial to throw advocacy and support to the solution. It’s about creating the infrastructure and addressing the all too important conflict minerals, which in my opinion is the real Mcguffin. I thank my friend John Prendergast for educating and calling me to action on behalf of conflict minerals. Every time I pick up my cell phone, I suddenly feel an uncomfortable lump rise in my throat.
Thank you all for your amazing support and good wishes and please get busy with our new campaign “Please Mr. President’. We will be traveling to eight cites in the US to hold workshops with homeless children, ending in Congo. Get on the Peace Train, and let us know if you would like us to visit your hometown.
Peace,
Lysa Heslov
(Images courtesy of Dokument Films)
- Categories: Human & Civil Rights
If she really cared about the Congo she wouldn't have stayed for five days and run off. She has no jobs, no occupation, she could have stayed long enough to do so real good. Why doesn't she donate the thousands of dollars she's won in lawsuits to the children of the Congo. Because she needs it to support her decadent, partying, cheating lifestyle.
All she is trying to do is make herself look like a caring person, which she obviously is not!!
Wendy have just read the answer to the last comment, and yes, I agree what is happening in the Congo is something we should all be made aware of and help, so why send a woman with her reputation.I live in England ,also I have a busy schedule I would help and if I could free 3 month of my time I would be over there. Our children are our future and need to be nurtured, it is a shame we can't all bring them over here. When the trouble in Sri Lanka first started a lot of children ended up in Holland. But I presume the problem in the Congo is too large and complicated. I am sorry but I feel sad for the plight but can't see past Miss Millers involvement.
Dear S. Okay, I do get on some level what you are saying but like you I have made some mistakes in my life so I try not to judge others especially in situations where I am not closely involved and don't have all the information. As a mother of two adopted children I have an great deal of respect for your choice to adopt and it sounds like you have a beautiful family. Quite possibly as mothers, we should concentrate on the poor children in the Congo, and not in someone's personal life. If anyone, regardless of their personal history, wants to help my kids in Congo then I welcome them. We need all the help we can get. Please understand this, and if you do have empathy, which is sounds as if you do, this won't diminish your obvious feelings of support for Mrs. Getty.
Dear Iysa, Yes I am entitled and if Miss Miller was aware that she would garner this feedback then she would have been better letting somebody else do the trip, but no any press is better than none. Yes, I have indeed worked in Nairobi,but that was some time ago, Sri Lanka and Dr.Parera I am still involved with, and have spend three years in total with him, after our last stint we came back with our little Amber Indrani, who we adopted there. We had already a family of five but she has been a blessing to all of us. We are a very multi racial family German, Dutch and Italian and family is important to us.
We all make mistakes, I have made some myself believe you me but I have never knowingly hurt anybody or hurt a family by getting involved in their marriage. Whether Mr.Getty was unhappily married or not, she should have never flaunted that relationship in front of Mrs. Getty and her children, it was insensitive and cruel.I think more people should put themselves in Mrs. Getty shoes and see how they feel. Miss Miller reputation might be tarnished but Mrs Getty has lost a lot more, and so have her children.
Princess,
I cannot try to make you feel differently about Ms. Miller. But I do think that when someone travels to one of the most dangerous place in the world and risks her life to shed light on the most horrific genocide since World War II, it is offensive to be talking about someone’s personal history and career. The point of this trip is to start a discussion and raise awareness for the people in the Congo who are experiencing the most heinous crimes against humanity. This is an opportunity for us to start a conversation on what we can do to help. Lysa explains in this post that “two out of every three woman are raped and tortured” Isn’t this what we should be spending our energy talking about?
Seeing the pictures and the blogs of her trying to act like she cares about this cause at all makes me want to vomit. This is SO obviously an attempt to Angelina Jolie herself it's not even funny. She never gave a crap about any of this until her career went supernova. The problem is, it's pretty obviously she'd rather be shopping or drinking or boinking a married man, so she can't pull it off. I hope this little bit of blatant hypocrisy is enough to put the final nail in the coffin of her career.
What has she done for the Starlight Children's Foundation?
The problem is credibility. When delivering a message, one looks at the charater of the person delivering it. Sienna has none. Zip, zippo, nada, none. She has lied and whined and b*tched so much this last year, I wouldn't believe her if she told me to hold my breath underwater. So, how can I give any credance to her "concern" for the Congo. Sunseeker is right, this is damage control. She's eat a basket of live rats if she thought it would save her career. This is a woman who is an ambassador for climate change, and then flies all over the planet for no good reason.
And to those of you ballyhooing her career, come on!!! SHE IS NOT SIGNED UP FOR ANY MOVIES!!!!!!!! She has one coming out in which she is a member of an enseble cast of 8 thousand actors, and she still managed to delay release with her shenanigans. She got a play that has not been cast, and is not even posted on the Roundabout's website. Her last 4 movies have gone straight to DVD.
She'll be on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" before you know it, and good riddance!!!
dear s.
while I won't dispute you feelings about Miss Miller, as you are entitled. May I only suggest to you that Miss Miller was well aware that she would garner this negative feedback, but she still choose to get on the plane knowing full well she was going to get tagged. If you have indeed worked in Sri Lanka, we would love for you to volunteer for our next workshop, channeling your obvious passion for children and family and doing some good..
Peace
childrenmendinghearts.org
This is for Miss Miller alll about damage control, firstly and mostly, that she was touched by what she saw there is not unusual, I worked in East Africa and Sri Lanka, so know a little of what Iam talking about. But Miss Miller 's reason for doing this is to change people's opinion about herself and anybody who get's involved in a relationship with a married man and then flaunts that relationship openly is not my first choice for this project. All over the internet there are photo's of Miss Miller in naked or near naked photo's and coming out of pubs and clubs drunk, and her behaviour is always attention seeking. And that is what this is all about.