The Princess of Africa will be the IC – will you?

We are thrilled to announce that Ms. Yvonne Chaka Chaka, known as the Princess of Africa, will be our special guest at our Congressional Reception on July 24!

Ms. Chaka Chaka was raised in Soweto under South Africa’s apartheid regime, but overcame her situation to become a celebrated singer and champion of the poor.

She was the first black child to appear on South African television and she has since shared the stage with top stars including Bono and Beyoncé.  Her audiences have included heads of state and other global leaders who she uses her voice to motivate for the causes she believes in.  In 2011 Yvonne was ranked eighth on Forbes’ list of the most influential African celebrities.

She is a champion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. She is the United Nations MDG Envoy for Africa, is the Goodwill Ambassador for the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and was chosen by Nelson Mandela as the first ambassador for his children’s fund.  She has also established her own charity, the Princess of Africa Foundation, using the name first given to her in Uganda. In 2012, she was the first African woman to received the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award — watch or read her short speech, in which she said:

“Men, women and children are dying unnecessarily of preventable and treatable diseases. They have almost no access to basic health services and are trapped in a cycle of poverty and sickness. Many communities in Africa and other poor regions of the world are tragically missing out on recent medical advances…With the global financial crisis, internationally funded health programmes are being frozen or scaled down. The people least responsible for the crisis are paying for it with their lives. Women and children will be particularly hard hit   if the Global Fund and GAVI are not fully funded.”

Recently, the launch of her documentary film, A Motherland Tour — A Journey of African Women, filmed over five years of travels around Africa, took her on a world tour to promote the grass roots successes of those engaged in the battle against HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, supported by the Global Fund.  Watch a short clip of this documentary, which will be shown at the IC. 

Click here to read more about Ms. Yvonne Chaka Chaka.

The International Conference is July 21–24 in D.C.
Register today. Prices go up April 30