How Alek Wek and H&M Are Helping Save Lives in Sudan
Alek Wek at the Mandarin Hotel, NYC. Photography by Ash Barhamand for Yahoo Style
As far as modeling careers go, Alek Wek’s has been, in a word, aspirational. The 38-year-old has walked the runway as Chanel’s haute couture bride, landed a Gilles Bensimon-shot cover of Elle, and had one of her first photo shoots with the late Herb Ritts, completely in the buff (“I was like 19, 20 years old,” she says, “and was like, ‘noooooo!! Is he a pervert?!’ And my agent’s just like… ‘NO!’”)
But before becoming one of the most recognizable women in the modeling world (she was discovered as an art history student while painting in a London park her second year of college), she was a refugee, having lived through a bloody civil war in her home country of Sudan. Though she was fortunate enough to have a mother who recognized the value in education for her children and took time to boil their drinking water before they consumed it, Wek saw many others who did not. “I’ve seen mothers and children really being vulnerable in the refugee camps; it’s supposed to be temporary, but they end up having children who have grown up in refugee camps. And there are girls who, if they have their [menstrual] cycles, they can’t go to school,” she tells Yahoo Style.
It’s those first-hand experiences that inspired her to become an ambassador for H&M’s Conscious Foundation, a title she’s held for two years. To raise awareness for the foundation, which aims at global change regarding education, women’s rights, and clean water in third world countries, Wek chose to wear a gown from H&M’s sustainable Conscious Exclusive collection to the 2015 CFDA Awards—generally considered fashion’s Oscars.
Photography by Ash Barhamand for Yahoo Style
The eco-friendly gown is nearly as stunning as Wek: A gray and black silk floor-length dress in a print reminiscent of paint strokes. “It kind of looks like I’m walking around with my art!” says Wek, who still paints—still lifes, portraits, and abstract—in her downtime. “I’m an artist at heart.” But more important than her outfit’s aesthetics is the message it’s sending. “[H&M’s Conscious Foundation] really helps put funds into programs that work with communities that need it; it makes them sustainable, and that really intrigued me. I’m very honored to get on board, to try and help and spread the positive message as much as possible.”
“I think that it’s really important to utilize the platform fashion has blessed me with, to shed light on this important issue,” she continues. “Everything has to do with education: If you educate the girls, you educate the family, the community, and society, in general. You don’t want to give handouts; you want to make them self-sufficient. And H&M Conscious Foundation really does that. It makes the program sustainable, for the long-term… [whether it’s] building pumps in rural areas that don’t have clean water, which causes a lot of diseases, or [installing] toilets to make sure girls don’t stay home [from school] and they’re not crippled, just because we’re women and we have our cycles. It’s part of life.”
Photography by Ash Barhamand for Yahoo Style
The experience with H&M has, so far, been extremely rewarding for the statuesque Wek. She says that some of her favorite moments with the foundation have included “just seeing the community when I go back to South Sudan, seeing the numbers of how many children had survived from having something as simple as clean drinking water… that was really touching for me. Seeing young girls not stay at home every month; some may not even be going to school.”
The foundation also recently gave Wek the opportunity to meet one of her heroes, South African apartheid opponent and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. “It still gives me goosebumps!” she says. “He’s such such a wonderful human being, it’s wonderful to have elders like Tutu who really has a firsthand experience of apartheid in South Africa, and lived through it. For me, it was quite a moment, to talk about how the younger generation can help out… because in the end, that’s what it’s about: sustainability, and it comes back to education.”
While not everyone has the means to participate in the cause as actively as she does, Wek says there are other ways to pitch in. “It really humbles me and also educates me, that everybody has an opportunity and a capacity to make a difference. There are teachers who donate their time… we can do events that don’t just raise funds, but raise awareness, and I think that it’s brilliant to be able to educate each other. It’s really given me a wonderful opportunity to learn, because we’re forever learning.”
As far as what’s next for Wek and her mission with H&M’s Conscious Foundation? The model and humanitarian says she’d like to return to South Sudan in time for the country’s first election, hopefully with some videographers in tow. Could a documentary be in the cards? Says Wek, excitedly, “It’s possible, absolutely.” That’s something we’d truly love to see.
Photography by Ash Barhamand for Yahoo Style
More from Yahoo Style:
How Alek Wek and H&M Are Empowering Kids
H&M Taps Olivia Wilde as Conscious Ambassador
Sequins Made from Shampoo Bottles & More From H&M’s Sustainability Report
