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Actress Carey Mulligan backs Evening Standard's Learn to Live campaign at UN assembly

Campaigner: actress Carey Mulligan with a Syrian refugee at al-Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan: Louis Leeson
Campaigner: actress Carey Mulligan with a Syrian refugee at al-Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan: Louis Leeson

Carey Mulligan went to the United Nations in New York to campaign for help for children caught up in conflicts, as she praised the Standard’s Learn to Live campaign.

The Hollywood star, who is supporting our work to twin London children with youngsters in refugee camps, joined War Child bosses yesterday to meet political leaders attending the UN General Assembly, after saying that our appeal had highlighted the importance of the issue.

“I think the campaign is brilliant,” she said. “The more we can do to understand people in all different walks of life gives perspective on the world and really builds empathy. We are all stuck in our own lives and it’s fair to say there is a lot going on for everyone.”

She added: “People are sitting on the Tube and reading these stories when they might not otherwise. That’s why this campaign is so exciting.

“It will be particularly important in the cases of the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo where these conflicts have been going on for so long they are not part of the daily news cycle. This is bringing them back into people’s minds.”

The Learn to Live campaign aims to increase empathy and understanding between children from different backgrounds. The pupils will carry out joint projects and learn about different cultures and ways of life. Mulligan said: “I have a romantic idea about pen pals — there is something wonderful about having the ability to connect with someone you have never met. This is a variation of that.”

She added that knowing other children are thinking of them will give young people in war zones great comfort as it takes “a great deal of hope and courage and inner strength” to spend year after year in a refugee camp. As for the London children taking part in the project, she said it would be “a bit challenging and eye-opening. It would have been for me when I was that age … but it is important and really enlightening.”

Mulligan has visited refugee camps in Jordan and the Democratic Republic of Congo in her role as a global ambassador for War Child. She said the camp in Goma in DRC was “one of the worst places I have ever been in my whole life. Two children had died that week of malnutrition. It was just horrendous.”

Rob Williams, the CEO of War Child UK, said the visit to the UN General Assembly enabled the messages being highlighted in the Standard campaign to be raised with world figures.

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