Award-winning screen actress Nicole Kidman was named on Thursday as a goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which she pledged to support through travels to devastated countries where its projects are carried out.

 

Introducing Kidman at a news conference in New York, UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer said, "We are honored to have Nicole join the UNIFEM family."

 

"Her role is to raise awareness of the pressing issues that women face around the world and to amplify the message that the contribution of women is essential to development, to the building of just and peaceful societies," she added.

 

Kidman said she was "honored" to become a goodwill ambassador, adding she was not pretending to be an expert on any of the issues that UNIFEM addresses, but was looking forward to learning and lending her support to "help make visible the very real and immediate problems."

 

The Academy Award-winning Australian, 38, said she plans to travel with Heyzer this year to find out more about the organization's work and to meet with women, hear their stories and understand first-hand the issues they face.

 

"The countries that we're considering possible visits to include Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Afghanistan and Cambodia, and that's just a beginning," Kidman told reporters.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 28, 2006)