Good Deeds

Salma Hayek Leads Fight Against Tetanus

10/02/2008 at 02:00 PM EDT

Besides making the scene – again – with ex-fiancé Francois-Henri Pinault, Salma Hayek is lending her name to a UNICEF campaign to eradicate tetanus in mothers and babies around the world within four years

Recently back from the West African nation of Sierra Leone, where she met with tetanus victims, Hayek, 42, a paid spokeswoman for Pampers' tetanus vaccine program, told journalists at United Nations in Geneva on Thursday, "One of the things that was very moving about the trip was to see 15-year-old girls, really young, taking responsibility for their lives and their children before they're born by saying 'I am going to be healthy, I am going to take this vaccination.' "

The actress and mother (of daughter Valentina Paloma Pinault, 1) added, "I had no idea how much this was going to really personally move me."

The Pampers-UNICEF partnership has already provided more than 50 million vaccines to mothers and babies in developing countries, where tetanus kills up to 140,000 infants and 30,000 women each year, according to U.N. figures, the Associated Press reports.
– Stephen M. Silverman