VOGUE: Rosie Writes From Cambodia

 

Rosie Writes From Cambodia

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley / Vogue | 30 May 2014

Model, actress and Unicef UK supporter Rosie Huntington-Whiteley travelled to Cambodia with Unicef to make an appeal film for ITV's "Soccer Aid", which airs on Sunday June 8. She captured the trip - and has written about her experiences in the country - exclusively for Vogue.

"The slums around Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, are crammed with children running around without shoes. They live in the most basic conditions, surrounded by dirt, rubbish and sewage in searing 37 degree heat. There's limited access to clean water, medicine and food. Every day is about survival for these children. It was shocking and sad to see.

In one slum I met a mum whose story really touched my heart. Sareth, aged 42, told me how during the rainy season last year, the river that they live next to flooded their home with unclean water and sewage. She was powerless to stop her baby daughter, just six months old, from getting diarrhoea and tragically dying.

Losing your precious baby girl is no less painful when you live in a slum than if you live in a big city like London or Los Angeles. A mother's broken heart is a mother's broken heart. And Sareth was so clearly heartbroken.

Shockingly every single day, around 50 children under the age of five die in Cambodia, most - like Sareth's daughter - due to diarrhoea or pneumonia. It's unfathomable to think that children are dying from illnesses that are easy to prevent and cure. We have to change this and change this now, so that the next baby who gets diarrhoea doesn't die.

I was moved by Sareth's determination to give her three remaining children the best life possible. Every day she collects and sells rubbish from the streets, earning not much more than £1 a day to pay for food, rent and healthcare for her family. Her adorable six-year-old son, Chamroeun, misses out on school to help her.

Their story will be featured in the appeal film I've made for Soccer Aid, which will be broadcast on ITV on Sunday June 8. Please watch it and support Unicef, so more vulnerable children like those in Cambodia's slums get clean water and life-saving medicine."

Go to unicef.org.uk/socceraid to find out more. All donations to Soccer Aid will be matched pound for pound by the UK government.