AUDREY HEPBURN

AUDREY HEPBURN

She was an immigrant. She had survived life living in a war-torn country, bombs exploding everywhere. She lived in constant fear, wondering whether she would be one of the young girls kidnapped and taken to a military brothel. When they found her, she was suffering from malnutrition, starved to the point of eating bulbs and grass.

She was known at that time as Edda van Heemstra. But, that was not her real name. Her mother had given her an assumed name to protect her identity. Although she was born in Belgium, she had been raised in England. She and her mother moved back to the Netherlands in 1939. Her mother would change her name after the Nazis invaded to protect her English identity.

Her real name was Audrey Kathleen Ruston, but to the American fans who would adopt her, she was known as Audrey Hepburn, and she was born on May 4, 1929.

Audrey Hepburn would remember those days, when she nearly starved to death, like the 20,000 other Dutch citizens who died from starvation that winter. She would also remember the brave souls who risked their lives to liberate her.

Her son would say, "she was ­grateful to the people who liberated her." He would add, "She never forgot the feeling of people coming with hope, food, a blanket, an outstretched hand.”

Years later, as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, she would visit a remote Sudanese refugee camp, helping a young boy who was suffering from acute anemia, respiratory problems and edema, due to malnutrition - the same condition she was in when she was found.

Although she is known around the world as the beautiful actress who starred in such memorable films as "Roman Holiday" and "Breakfast at Tiffany's," what she was most proud of was how she helped millions of children as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, dedicating the last years of her life to helping impoverished children in the poorest nations, bringing them much-needed food, medicine, and clothing, just as she received when she was a child.

She would go before Congress to testify:

"The 'Third World' is a term I don't like very much, because we're all one world. I want people to know that the largest part of humanity is suffering...Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization of politics."

"There is a moral obligation," she would say, "that those who have should give to those who don't...We have a debt to each other, to humanity. Maybe some people don't feel that way. I rather pity them. I think people like that live such an isolated life and don't have the joys of helping, of changing the world little bit."

“As you grow older," she said, "you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others."

Read the story above and write about a well-known person.
1. Biography
2. Why have you chosen this particular person?
3. What has this person done you consider important?

C1---------------240 words
B2---------------140 words
B1---------------100 words