Do you think celebrities are driven by a genuine desire to help the less fortunate? Or are more selfish reasons fuelling charitable acts?

Supermodel Naomi Campbell recently hosted a fashion show in New York and London to collect funds for the people of Haiti. More than a million people were left homeless by an earthquake on January 12 that wrecked the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. Campbell also plans to hold a charity event called Neon in Moscow on May 25. The money raised at the programme, which includes a fashion show, concert, and auction, will be donated to charity funds that help poor Russian families.

 

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie adopted seven-month-old Cambodian boy Maddox Chivan on March 10, 2002, and six-month-old girl Zahara Marley from Ethiopia on July 6, 2005. With ambitions to adopt kids from different races of the world, on March 15, 2007, Jolie welcomed a three-year-old boy from Vietnam, Pax Thien, into her family. Jolie has also said that she is “open” to adopt a kid from Haiti.

 

Pop star Madonna returned to Malawi in April this year to watch the first bricks laid down at her school, The Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. She began a charity in Malawi in 2006, when she adopted a son, David, from the country. Madonna faced an outcry of public opinion when she was accused of getting special treatment from the government of Malawi for skirting laws that ban non-residents from adopting children. Her 2009 adoption of a daughter also raised eyebrows.

 

A classic example of celebrities engaging in charitable acts is the donation of $7,47,500 by the makers of the hit film Slumdog Millionaire for the improvement of the lives of street children in Mumbai. The Jai Ho Trust aims to ensure that the child actors of the film, who came from Mumbai's slums, get a good education, adequate housing, and social support.