Daily Good Gossip

Justin Bieber Supports Social Good Facebook Games

Sojo Studios has forged a partnership with global pop/R&B phenomenon Justin Bieber to help children around the world.

The company recently heralded the preview launch of its first “social good” Facebook game, WeTopia, and its first celebrity partnership with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Both DeGeneres and Bieber will provide entertainment marketing support as Sojo rolls out its slate of games, beginning with WeTopia.

“Playing online games is a lot of fun already, but WeTopia makes it better by helping children around the world. Some of these kids need to go to school or they need clean water,” said Bieber. “I’ve been so lucky and blessed and that’s why I believe so much in giving back, and I know my fans will feel the same way when they play WeTopia.”

The first company to combine social games with nonprofit beneficiaries on an ongoing basis, Sojo Studios encourages online game lovers to Play for Good. WeTopia is a free-to-play, community-building Facebook game where players develop a better world for children, both in the game and in the real world. As players grow their WeTopia villages, they earn currency called “Joy” which they can choose to apply toward specific charitable projects in the U.S. and abroad, and then track the impact of their contributions in-game. Initial nonprofit partners include Save the Children, buildOn and Children's Health Fund.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Justin Bieber, an amazing entertainer and someone who has emerged as one of the most prolific young philanthropists this world has seen,” said Lincoln Brown, founder and CEO of Sojo Studios. “Justin is using his voice to inspire millions of fans around the world – including daughters and their moms – to give back. We can’t think of a better way to bring the generations together than on WeTopia, which lets players do good while having fun.”

“Social media is how I originally discovered Justin and it’s how he regularly connects with his fans worldwide,” offered his manager, Scott “Scooter” Braun. “He’s excited about WeTopia as a new form of social entertainment that’s literally a game-changer: making charity a regular, enjoyable and organic part of people’s everyday lives.”

The first musical artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first solo artist to earn three #1 albums before his 18th birthday, Justin Bieber has achieved unprecedented success in the U.S. and worldwide since the November 2009 release of his first album, My World. Subsequent albums include My World 2.0 and Never Say Never: The Remixes, the accompaniment to his concert documentary film Never Say Never, the highest grossing concert film in U.S. history. His new holiday album, Under the Mistletoe, recently debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 (the only Christmas album by a male artist to debut at #1) and is certified RIAA double platinum, with worldwide sales topping two million units. The album features duets with Mariah Carey, Usher, Boyz II Men, Busta Rhymes and The Band Perry. Bieber has earned numerous awards and honors including six Billboard Music Awards, four American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and two Grammy nominations. To date, Bieber has sold over 11 million albums worldwide and amassed over 2.2 billion video views on YouTube, over 36 million Facebook fans and more than 15 million Twitter followers.

Source: www.looktothestars.org

Daily Good Gossip

 Ewan McGregor Speaks Up For Starving Children in East Africa

“East Africa is in crisis – war, failing harvest and the worst draught in fifty years means that over 2 million children are at risk… risk of disease, risk of death,” says the actor and humanitarian in a new video filmed for UNICEF. “At just one refugee camp in Kenya, there are almost half a million people in urgent need of food, water and basic healthcare. The situation throughout the region is becoming more and more critical. The threat of starvation is very real. By giving just £5, you could give desperately needed food to the most malnourished children. UNICEF’s most experienced teams are already on the ground, ensuring lifesaving aid is getting through, but we urgently need your help to reach every child who needs us. I promise your donation will make a real difference.”
The epicentre of the drought has hit the poorest people in the region in an area straddling the borders of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia where families rely heavily on livestock for survival. In some parts of the region, up to 60 percent of their herds have already died while the remainder are either sick or dangerously underweight. The price of animals has plummeted by half while the cost of cereals has soared. In Somalia the price of a main staple sorghum has risen by a massive 240 percent since this time last year.
Malnutrition rates in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are alarming and well above emergency levels – in some places five times higher than crisis threshold. In Dolo Ado, a camp in southern Ethiopia for Somali refugees, malnutrition rates are the highest recorded in this region since the nineties.
Last week, Kristin Davis visited the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya with Oxfam, saying “I met women who have walked for 20 days through the desert, with children dying on the way, only to arrive at a camp where there is hardly any food and water to go around. We must not allow this to happen in this day and age. Anything that you can give will help people who have absolutely nothing.”
Earlier this month, stars such as Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel and Lauren Laverne signed an open letter to raise awareness of the humanitarian disaster: “While severe drought has undoubtedly led to the huge scale of the disaster, this crisis has been caused by people and policies as much as nature. The global food system is clearly not working. Five of the past seven years have seen poor or failed rains across the region – if action had been taken earlier it could have helped mitigate the severity of the current crisis. Pastoralists’ ability to cope with drought has been systematically undermined, as land traditionally used in times of emergency has been sold off or allocated for tourism, national parks and large-scale agriculture.”

Source: Looktothestars.org

Stand Up To Cancer

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