Tsunami disaster – countries in crisis

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Whoopi Goldberg on humanitarian disaster in Asia

UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, Whoopi Goldberg

NEW YORK, 6 January 2005 – UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Whoopi Goldberg took a moment before starting her one-woman Broadway show to speak about  the tsunami disaster in Asia and Africa.

“I couldn’t put my head around it. I couldn’t put my head around it. And then when you couple that with the area you can’t get to, and the things that…I mean it’s an extraordinary moment in history,” said the actress.

With  millions of people left homeless, UNICEF says it is likely that hundreds of thousands of children are in critical need, not only of basic provisions such as food, water and shelter, but also of support to help them  recover from trauma. Getting children back into school is crucial, because it provides them with a sense of normality and it helps protect them from trafficking.

Goldberg continued “This just hit so many places and so many people, not of any particular religion, or ethnic background, it just came and took people. And it’s an extraordinary thing, because people suddenly understand that at no time in our lives is life assured. Anything and anytime can happen.

“The great thing about giving is that there’s no particular number you have to give. I mean kids in classrooms can collect nickels from each other, or quarters, or whatever. It doesn’t matter because everything that you give is going to someone in need.”

UNICEF is working throughout the tsunami-affected areas to assess the needs of children and their families. To support UNICEF’s emergency response to the disaster please click here.

“We’ve seen extraordinary things in our lifetime, but this, I don’t think there’s anybody on the planet who can remember something like this happening in their lifetime, so it’s huge, it’s huge,” said  Goldberg.