Naomi Campbell hosts charity event to support Syrian children

Hollywood and fashion A-listers gathered on Sunday for the Fashion for Relief charity event to raise funds for Syria's children refugees.
2 min read
25 May, 2017
Iconic supermodel Naomi Campbell hosted a star-studded event in aid of Syria's children refugees [Getty]
Iconic supermodel Naomi Campbell hosted a star-studded event in aid of Syria's children refugees for the Fashion for Relief charity at the annual Cannes Film Festival on Sunday.

Campbell, who founded the charity in 2005, led the event to raise money for Save the Children with funds going to help provide food, aid and shelter to children affected by the conflict in Syria.

Now in its 12th year, the event saw supermodels Natalia Vodianova, Kate Moss, Heidi Klum, Erin O'Connor, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Lebanon's Lana El Sahely storm the runway wearing garments later auctioned in aid for the event.

Among the 500 other guests in the celebrity-packed event were Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Uma Thurman, F1 racer Lewis Hamilton as well as an array of film makers, celebrities and philanthropists.

Jordan's Queen Rania, wife of the country's King Abdallah, was also present and received an award for her humanitarian work.

"Humbled to receive a humanitarian award from Fashion for Relief, which is supporting Save the Children's Every Last Child Campaign this year," she tweeted

In February, Campbell visited the Zaatari refugee camp, where more than 80,000 Syrian refugees – half of which are children – live.

"I saw first-hand exactly what these children are going through," she said. "I met with children who have been traumatised by the war."

Though the full amount raised at this year's Fashion for Relief event has not yet been released all proceeds from the event went to the Save the Children Foundation.

The foundation launched in 2016 its Every Last Child campaign to focus on the world's excluded children to ensure they received adequate healthcare and quality education.

The campaign also aims to support the development and improve the well-being of children displaced by conflict, especially those most adversely affected by today's global refugee crisis.

Syria's six-year conflict has triggered a vast exodus of refugees, millions of whom are living in neighbouring states.

The UN, other aid agencies as well as the governments of the host countries, have regularly decried that the necessary funds to support the refugees are not available.

The UN refugee agency says it has registered more than 680,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan alone with Amman says it hosts some 1.3 million Syrians at a cost of some 6.6 billion US dollars (5.9 billion euros) since the war broke out in 2011.

According to the UN children's agency UNICEF, 2.3 million Syrian children are living as refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq.