Philanthropy
Besides her career in music, Hilson has also been involved with several charities. In January 2010, she teamed up with Akon on the charity single, "Oh Africa". All proceeds of the single benefited underprivileged African youth. The following month, Hilson joined the extended list of artists during the recording session of the single, "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", to benefit victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. On May 25, 2010, she performed at the Virginia Stand Up! A Call to Action benefit concert, organized by Chris Brown to help with continued relief efforts in Haiti. On October 21, 2010, Hilson attended Collins Academy High School in Chicago as part of the Get Schooled National Challenge and Tour, a "program aimed at increasing high school and college graduation rates and promoting the importance of education". A year later, she received a Get Schooled Award for her involvement with the program. In 2011, Hilson contributed in the fight against AIDS, by posing in retail-clothing company H&M's celebrity-driven collection for Fashion Against AIDS. 25% of all sales from the collection were donated to the Designers Against Aids charity. Hilson contributed to the It Gets Better Project, a project which aims to prevent suicide among LGBT youth.
In June 2011, Hilson became an ambassador for MTV Staying Alive, a foundation which raises awareness and prevention of HIV and AIDS. In September 2011, she lent her support to US First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign, which aims to combat childhood obesity. She made t-shirts for the campaign that read "Pretty Girls Sweat", and exercised with the young women at The Educational Alliance's Sirovich Senior Center in New York on September 24. During Hilson's visit in Africa in November 2011, she stopped by an orphanage to visit her young fans who had lost their families during the 2010–2011 Ivorian crisis. She gave each orphan a "care" package, which consisted of bookbags, t-shirts, sunglasses, notebooks and an electric keyboard. In April 2012, Hilson worked with DoSomething.org to encourage young people to take part in the nationwide Epic Book Drive by bringing books to local people in need. In a press release, she stated: "Joining DoSomething.org's newest effort to provide for people in need with Epic Book Drive was the easiest decision ever!. I truly believe providing access to those who want to learn is the key to bettering lives around the country. And helping kids find healthy outlets, such as books, has always been a passion of mine. So my involvement here is a natural fit."
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Famous quotes containing the word philanthropy:
“Almost every man we meet requires some civility,—requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)