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Karen Elson

Karen joined Save the Children as an ambassador in 2014 and has since supported our No Child Born To Die healthcare campaign, our Syria Crisis Appeal and Action/2015.
Karen Elson at the Big Up Uganda event in 2018

Karen Elson at the Big Up Uganda event in 2018

Supermodel and musician Karen Elson has appeared in international campaigns for designers including Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Dior and Gucci. 

Karen has visited our programmes in Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Jordan. In Côte d’Ivoire, she met mothers who had lost children to preventable causes such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition. She also met with midwives and health workers at clinics supported by Save the Children.

She said, “Save the Children has made great progress in vulnerable urban and rural areas..., providing free vaccinations, free pre (and post) natal consultations for mothers and free health equipment.

"They seem to be having a profound effect on the hopefulness I have seen in the country, but there is definitely still a long way to go.”

As well as fronting campaigns, Karen has worked behind the scenes in the fashion world to raise awareness of our work. 

In 2015, she took part in our Fashion Saves Lives Designer Sweater campaign, teaming up with Charlotte Olympia to design a Christmas jumper to raise money for our work.

Karen has been awarded the Harpers Women of the Year Philanthropy Award for her work with Save the Children.

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