victoria beckham fashion bags

victoria beckham fashion bags

   05.23       Fashion 2017

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my involvement with unicef has been for fourteen years. the first time i did anything with them was in thailand and i was on a tour with manchester united and i was asked by unicef with six other players to go to a women's centre and that was my

first involvement with unicef and then, about six months after that, i had a letter from kofi annan, saying, 'would you like to become one of our ambassadors?' and that, without a doubt, was one of my proudest moments outside of my career and in my life

to be honest. you know, to be asked to be an ambassador of an organisation that does so much for so many people so many children, so many men around the world, i was very touched by that. so, yeah, my involvement started a long time ago my involvement did start fourteen

years ago and yes, ten years as an ambassador so, i'm very proud of that and i take that very seriously and you've launched the 7 fund this year, i'll ask you a bit about that in a moment, but carol, i'll come to you as unicef, a huge organisation, you have a lot of ambassadors

but david is the first ambassador to have his own fund, what does that say about what he brings to unicef? well you know, first of all, i want you to understand that we don't just take anyone to be an ambassador you know, we were the first organisation to ever use celebrity ambassadors

and we get requests pretty frequently from people who would like to be ambassadors and as i describe usually as, we date for about a year before we marry and, and clearly we look for people who are truly committed to our cause. so this

is not just, you know, a pr thing, this has got to be somebody who really, as i describe it, speaks kid and really feels the mission and david clearly does that. and you know, his reach is so phenomenal the announcement of the 7 fund alone reached over

five billion people, i mean, it was like this most amazing pick up on it. and also because children look up to him so when he speaks, it's not only great for public relations, but it is an opportunity for a role model to speak and i think that is equally important

so, we're just thrilled to have him. so you've been dating david beckham for nearly fourteen years, i think we can call that going steady. so david, fourteen years involvement with unicef, this opportunity comes up for you to start the 7 fund, tell us what it's all about. what the 7 fund mean

to you? well, the 7 fun is obviously something that we've been talking about for a while, with unicef and obviously, as you all know, well i hope you all know, i retired two years ago, from a career of 22 years, and i was pretty successful in my career

which i'm very proud about. and my involvement with unicef was always something that i was proudest of. so when i came to the end of my career, you know, even, even during my career, i wanted to do more, but obviously i had managers that obviously

wanted me there every day, so i couldn't do everything that i wanted to, about going into field, going into the field and doing certain things, but i did as much as i could. one of my first involvements were, was with the tsunami, which was about two weeks

after i was made ambassador so that was something that, you know, i was obviously, very involved in. so, obviously, you know the 7 fund is something that i wanted to do more, you know, i understand my position, i understand my

role, i understand that over the years, which i'm very proud of, i've become a role model for many children, and i do take that very seriously so, when we started talking about the fund, we said, i said, 'what can i do more? you know, what is there

that i can do more for children around the world? what can i, you know, raise and shine a light on?' and we found many things that i could do, and funnily enough you know, that was something that we really focused on. you know,

i have a voice, and i have a voice that a lot of people like to listen to, it might be slightly high pitched at times but i do, i do have a voice that people listen to. and we found that out very quickly with my involvement with unicef and i think, if

that's the only thing that i can achieve with starting the 7 fund, then that's enough, but i want more. you know, i want to raise as much awareness as i can, i want to raise as much money as i can. i want to do everything possible you know, at the end of my career

you know, many people say, you know, why are you not just sitting down, relaxing, going on a beach and enjoy yourself playing golf here, which we were never allowed to do, by the way. but, no, you know, i understand over the, over the years of

the success that i've had on the field you know, that's given me the chance to actually achieve off the field with other things and this, without doubt is my main focus you know, people turned round to me at the end of my career and said, 'do you want to become a manager? do you

want to become a coach?' i have to be passionate about something, i think you know, many of you have seen me play hopefully and enjoyed watching me play for my country and the teams that i've played with over the years. and everyone knows how passionate i am about the game, and about

my job. so, i have to be passionate and i'm passionate about unicef and i'm passionate about helping children. and i realise the opportunity that i have, i have a real opportunity to help children around the world. and really, i want to underscore what you just said, because, you know, i'm

the paid gun to do this this is not something that david has to do, and he's been doing this for ten years and he instead of saying, 'great, ten years i've done my share', is amplifying it at a point in his life that this is the farthest thing that you have to be doing. and we

come back to the name, the 7 fund you must have been inundated with possibilities of where to, of projects, and projects to fund raise for how did you whittle down that shortlist, obviously, the name, 7 helped, but how did you decide what regions, what projects

'cause like i said, the list of children that needed help must have endless. i think that was part of obviously, being you know, a partner with unicef, you know being a team member with unicef that's where i had to, you know i've seen the work that they do

and it is truly incredible you know, it's selfless work that these people that work for unicef, on the ground, do not just a couple of hours a day they are doing this 24 hours a day, they're not sleeping, they're not washing, you know, this is something that they are so focused

on and they just want to help people. so, obviously, when we started talking about the 7 fund, you know, it was just a fund at first. so then obviously, 7 was something that everyone knows is very important to me, you know, i wore it for manchester united for years, i wore it

for england for years, my daughter's middle name is seven, so it means a lot to me. and that's when we started to focus on the countries that really do need urgent help, and the, you know, the children in those countries that really need that urgent help. so that's when i

had to ask, you know, unicef about their expertise in that area and we came up with the seven different countries seven different initiatives and we focused on that you know, and that's, you know, like you said, that's the difficult part because we live in a world

where there are so many you know, children in danger of violence, of malnutrition, you know, health issues, you know, this there's so many issues around the world and we really needed to focus on certain things

and i think, like i said, that's where unicef's expertise came into this yeah, carol, talk to us about how you came up with this shortlist, because like you said unicef doesn't just go in for the short term, it's there for the long term this is a bold move, because you have to invest in this project for

the long term, as does david. absolutely and unicef works yesterday today, tomorrow in 190 countries and territories around the globe. so, identifying the seven took some conversation and negotiation. in particular thought, what i was struck by was david's desire to

shine a spotlight on countries that might not otherwise have a spotlight on them, so he didn't pick, you know, quote, the sexiest places in the world, but instead places that some of you may be challenged to find on the map and i think that's particularly interesting, you know, in

many ways it's kind of like what george harrison did for bangladesh david is now doing for burkina faso, you know, taking a country that is not every day in the news, but is experiencing horrific child mortality rates, horrific child violence rates, you know, things that

are, things we don't want to see for our own children, we shouldn't tolerate for any child in shining the spotlight on them. so, the countries are burkina faso, bangladesh i'm cheating, swaziland the serbia region papua new guinea, djibouti

and el salvador. well, let's shine a bit more of a light on those areas with a little help from google maps in this video. so google maps has essentially taken us on a tour of all the work and all the regions you're covering. one of the questions that you must get asked

a lot, is how hands on are you well, i hope by the end of today and this talk you'll realise how hands on i actually am, because obviously, i've had a fourteen year relationship with unicef, and from day one, i've been very hands on, i've always wanted

to do everything possible you know, when it came to, obviously the 7 fund, we sat down, we talked through every possible country that we could help, every initiative that we could get involved in and believe me, i'm involved

in this full-time, you know, this is something that i'm passionate about, it's something that i want to make a change. i want to, you know, it's about leaving a legacy i've always wanted to be a professional footballer and i was lucky enough to have a career that i had. now

i want to be able to be successful and help children around the world you know, i'm sure most of you in here are parents and you all know what children mean to you. you know, they're our future it's an obvious statement, they are our future and when i look at my children, you know, i want to

leave a legacy, so in ten, twenty, 30 years' time, they turn round and say, 'my dad helped build that.' or, 'my dad won that trophy.' or, 'my dad helped these children.' and that's what i want to do for children around the world. it's why i'm so very

hands on with not just the 7 fund but unicef and other charities that i've been involved in, over the years, because i want to make a difference and i want to be involved 110% it's what i do. you know, people have seen me on the football pitch and

i'm passionate. now, i'm passionate as well, off the field, with the 7 fund and with raising awareness around the world for children and the protection of children. and this is how involved david is he's not just a fundraiser an ambassador, pr marketing as well, sitting here talking about it, but carol

he is opening doors that you perhaps couldn't ordinarily get through, in terms of, i understand you had a bit of a problem getting to the prime minister. david beckham turns up at number ten, knocks on the door and there's a warm welcome. exactly, exactly you know, and i think also just to listen and to hear

having seen the work, you can't help but become that passionate and that engaged. you know, i was watching the video and thinking about the countries and, you know, taking just one, bangladesh you know, the education initiative in bangladesh, the majority of children that you meet will introduce

themselves by profession okay, they will do it, the way an adult does. you know, a five and six year old, 'hi, i'm the garbage man in the community i'm the cook in someone's home.' and your heart breaks when you see it, and i've had the opportunity to go to work with those children and to see the circumstances

under which they work and you come away from something like that and you can't help but want to change something. and then to have somebody take the step and actually make that happen is pretty remarkable david, in your work with unicef, is there one particular child that you've met that you always have in the back

of your mind, when you're doing this work is there one particular child that touched you and every time you go forward and push your work with unicef or the 7 fund there, in the back of your mind? i mean, there isn't one particular because there's probably four or five children that i've met

in my time with unicef that have really kind of got to me. and it's still hard you know, to talk about it, you know because i'm pretty, an emotional person anyway, i'm sure you saw in my last game, when i played. trophy shed a tear, a lot of people will rush forward with tissues. so, i, it's, you know, being

part of unicef and being an ambassador it does put you in a situation where there's a good chance that you will get emotional with talking to families, with talking to children. there was a particular family that i met with my last trip, my most recent trip to the philippines,

and i was warned before i actually went into the house because this was after the typhoon that went on in the philippines and that was, it was probably four weeks after. so, it was very raw still, you know, it was very you know, there was a lot of heartbreak

throughout, you know, the island and it was devastating. so i was warned before i went into the house, you know, this is the story that you're going to hear, so be prepared. i don't think anything can prepare you for, from a parent's perspective

of what has just happened to them. and the parents came in, well i met the little girl first she walked in and very polite amazing, big smile on her face, sat down, talked to me and then the parents came in. and the moment that

the mum sat down, tears just were rolling out of her eyes. and then the dad was the one that actually explained you know, what had actually happened and what they'd been through as a family. and what actually happened, the night of the typhoon

they were told to get on top of the roof, get onto the highest point, so they did as a family, two little girls one, eight, and one, three and the mum was holding the three year old and the dad was holding the eight

year old. and the mum turned round to the dad and said, you know, 'i can't hold on anymore, will you take her?' so, the dad's holding the two girls. the dad ends up getting knocked off the top of the roof, still holding

one of the little girls and then he woke up. he was knocked unconscious. he woke up probably four or five hours after and he only had one of the little girls with him they searched for two days and then finally

they found-, he found his little girl. to hear stories like that, it's- i mean, it's heart-breaking. it really is heart-breaking and like i said it's hard to not get emotional when you're sat with a family that has gone through such heartbreak. but you know, to make it worse

the dad was like, 'let me show you a video of my little girl.' so then i'm watching a video with the parents and, you know, the heartbreak that is in the parents' eyes, the heartbreak that they are going to have to go through that's just one family. we're talking-, i was driving

back to the airport, and we-, i noticed on the side of the road there was a small graveyard, which seemed to be next to some kind of school. i said, 'can i stop?' there seemed to be people everywhere so i walked onto this graveyard and i spoke to-, there was a person

there, an elderly man. i said to him, 'can you explain? are you able to explain?' he said, 'twelve of my family members are in this grave here.' and when you look at things like that, it's-, i've just listened to one story

from one family. there's so many families who have gone through such devastation, and we're also talking about children that are still dying from diarrhoea. you know my children get diarrhoea. they don't die. sorry to be so graphic, but

it's true. it's true. in our day and age, children are still dying of diarrhoea while we've been-, while this has gone on today, 17,000 children are dying. and that's going to happen tomorrow, the next day, the next day. we have the opportunity to really

make a difference. there are so many influential and powerful people in this room and around the world that can really make a difference. it's easy for-, it would have been easy for me to turn around and say, 'do you know what? i'm more

than happy with doing what i'm doing being an ambassador and continuing my role' but i've been in the field. i've worked with unicef i've seen the unbelievable work that unicef do, and i really want to make a difference. i know that it's, like i said, it's easy to sit

back and say you know, 'i'm just one person. i'm not going to be able to help that situation.' you can, and that's the difference. you know, the 17,000 children are all under the age of 5 and they're all dying of causes we already know how to prevent

not one of them is a death that we couldn't have prevented if we'd gotten there in time. and lest you think, though, it's an insurmountable problem, in the 1980s that number was over 35,000 children dying every single day of causes we knew how to prevent and in the ensuing

years while we've halved the number the world's population has tripled, so theoretically there could have been over 100,000 children dying every day and we've brought it down already to 17,000 so in the abstract, that's great but if you're the mum of one of those 17,000 not so great. unicef's commitment

really, is to bring that number to zero. we will not stop the work we do until that number is zero. and carol, 2014 was a particularly bad year globally for children, explain why that is. the united nations will rank emergencies and a level three emergency

is an all-hands on deck flat out the worst possible emergency. and in my career, i've been in the non-profit world now for over 30 years you will average one or two level three emergencies every year. this year we've had five simultaneous level three

emergencies. there are more children on the move right now than there were in the post-world war ii immediate period. there have been more natural disasters and unfortunately each time an emergency happens we get stretched that much thinner

unicef doesn't stockpile dollars in case of an emergency you never want to stay to a mother 'i know your child is starving, but i'm saving these dollars just in case we have an emergency.' each time something happens it's an 'and' it's not an 'or' this year there's been an 'and' and an 'and'

and an 'and' and an 'and' and an 'and' it's been the worst year for children on record. but this year, 2015, is being called the year of hope. david there is a the chance to make a giant step in getting the welfare of children globally on the agenda of world leaders

and you're going to be door stepping them and making sure that happens. explain to us what's going on this year. yes i am. like we were saying earlier, one of the great things about my success that i've had in my career is that it does open doors. it does

open doors for unicef, and there has been moments where we've needed to speak to prime ministers or presidents and thankfully they've been football fans, or manchester united fans, or real madrid fans. it's probably why i kept hopping from club to club. to cover

all bases. we hit all bases, but no, you know, obviously in september like you said, 2014 was one of the most devastating years for the protection of children but 2015, in september, i will be heading to new york and hopefully making

sure that, with the global leaders with the power that's going to be in new york at that time that the protection of children will be on the top of their list. i think that's important. that's the goal that we want, and we want them to hit their goals, and their goal to be protection of children

what will you be saying to them? i'm quite interested to know what a doorstep by david beckham is like. when you're confronting these world leaders, how does this conversation start? well, i'll take a few shirts, so i can sign them. apart from that-, wait, you'll have to have a selfie with them first. a selfie, of course

it's going to be similar to what i'm doing today. you know, i think i just want to voice my opinion and voice my opinion about what i'm doing, what unicef are doing, and the great work that has been done over many, many years, and hopefully

the great work that's going to be done in the future, because like i said you know, children are so passionate, and they're so important in our lives. i notice it with my four children you know. they know more about social networking than i ever

will. it's important. they're on google every single day. that's what they do. to solve problems, they go on google they google it. you know, children are so important for the future and that's what i'll be putting

across in many different ways and we hope to be able to deliver, with david, the views of children around the world. we've launched-, and if you were in the sandbox stop by the unicef booth-, something called ureport. 50% of the kids, even in the most remote areas

have access to a basic cell phone through which we can do text messaging we've used it as response when, you know, in the ebola crisis, where we've texted out messages to kids about where to go for help, what to look for as symptoms of the disease

but we use it more often to collect information from children about services in real time so that we're not waiting two years until something gets evaluated and then going back and making some changes. we're able to shift on a dime, and that's a programme

we hope to take out around the world but we also hope to collect their views for david to take to the un in september carol, you're very interested in-, i mean, obviously, a lot of people in the audience here are interested in technology, involved in technology. your interest in the role that technology can be

used in for good, in terms of unicef, i mean-, so what kind of information are you looking for, for our audience later on? well we are definitely trying to-, we were talking about this, a few of us over lunch today, to change the paradigm from, 'should you allow your child access to tech?' or instead to a parent

saying, 'how do i have my child's use of tech be tech for good?' and so ureport is one example of that. another is the little item i'm wearing on my wrist. it's a kid power band. we're giving kids in america-, one in four are underactive

while one in four children around the world are starving to death, they're severely malnourished so we're challenging america's children right now to get active, to wear a band, to meet a minimum number of steps for every 2,500 steps they reach, they get a kid power

point. it vibrates and it lights up and it does all these things. for every five points, a sachet of micro-nutrients is delivered to a child overseas so the motivation to the american child at the moment to get healthy is that he or she is saving a life. so that's

one example of tech for good it is our goal to come up with a significantly larger pool of products and services of tech for good, and that's why i'm here today, because you are the wealth of ideas, and thought leaders that could help us figure all that out. and

david's just joined instagram, as well, so i'm sure you'll be making use of his instagram. absolutely. how many followers have you got now? well, i can say it because my son's not here. he's very offended that i'm above him now. for many years i was only part of facebook but on my 40th birthday

i decided to join instagram i think i'm on 5.7 now so i'm very happy about that, but there's a bit of pressure as well, because i keep needing to post pictures. for those of us on instagram, we enjoyed the pictures of your 40th birthday party. thanks for the invite! talk

to us a bit about your children, because obviously they use a lot of social media and they'll be very aware of what you're doing. not just, obviously through talking to you, but through seeing it through various different social media outlets. how involved are they in what you're doing and how interested are they? how much do you want to involve

them in this? as you call it, the 7 fund is going to be your legacy. well, obviously over the years-, my eldest is sixteen and my youngest is four so they've seen me go away playing for the last sixteen years, especially brooklyn. every time i've gone away

he's understood that i've gone away to-, you know, 'dad's going away to play a game' but now, i've retired two years ago, so their first question when i'm packing a bag is, 'why are you going away this time?' and obviously when i came back from the philippines i sat them all down. i'd actually

told them why i was going in the first place. i sat them all down, and they said, 'can we see some pictures?' so i was showing them pictures of the family that i just spoke about, and they said, 'how can we get involved?' and that was my ten year old. he

was eight or nine at the time he said, 'how can i get involved? what can i do?' and that's the great thing about going into the field i come home, i tell my children exactly what i've been doing, and like i said, even my eight year old, nine year old at the time

turned around to me and said, 'okay, how can i get involved? how can i raise money for this family?' so, i obviously said to them, 'it's not just about this one family. it's about an organisation.' so my son, my middle son, ran in the children's marathon he qualified to run in the children's

marathon a few weeks ago and his first question to me was 'can i put the 7 fund on my arm? can i raise money?' so he sent me round with loads of leaflets, so i went into the office, i went knocking on doors,

and he raised about â£15,000 for unicef. i was very proud of that, but i think what it showed me is a) my children listen to me-, good. my wife doesn't sometimes actually, most of the time, but they listen, and children

are like sponges. as soon as you tell them some information it soaks right in and hey come back with questions and the great thing about children they're honest. so my children wanted to get involved. they're very proud of what i've done throughout my career. they're very proud that

their dad's helping children around the world and my eldest son, he's sixteen so at some point he's going to be coming on trips with me as well that's the thing, isn't it? it's not just about helping children that need it globally. it's also about inspiring the next generation

to continue the work that their dads and their mums are doing right now. absolutely i've brought all three of my sons to the field at various points they hung bed nets in africa and they did a polio campaign with me and a tetanus campaign and they have been all up and down the

amazon as well. i think there's a couple of things. you know, i've had the privilege to do work as part of my job with unicef in now 30 countries and there are three things that have been the same in every country. the first, actually why david is such a great ambassador

is that wherever there are kids there's some kind of ball. i really don't know what it is about mankind but there's something in us that's innate that we will have to kick a ball every country has one and the second is that in every single country, my lap is not my property. if you sit

on the ground long enough, anywhere in the world a child, if not multiple children will come and sit on you. but the third thing is somewhat more serious. it's that as parents, as grannies as aunties, whatever, we all want the same things

for our kids. we want them to be safe we want them to be healthy we want them to eat a warm meal every night and go to bed underneath a warm blanket we want them to dream these really big dreams. we want to be part of making that

happen, and that's not defined by geography and borders or economics. that's defined by the fact that we are the grown-ups and these are children and we might define that success differently. you know, i say to my kids, 'go to harvard b school. make a lot of money. support

your mum,' and the woman in sierra leone may say, 'i really hope my child gets to own a goat,' but we all know that we want them to have the life that's better than our own and if it's not okay for my child not to have it, it's not okay for your child not to have it and we really

have to get the world to wake up and hear 17,000 kids are dying tonight, 17,000 mums will not kiss that child good morning tomorrow. until we accept that and do something about it, it is just not okay. okay, well before we get to

the-, before we give you the opportunity to ask david and caryl some questions we're going to get to the business end of our talk, david, because we're not here just to talk about this. we're here to do something, aren't we? i noticed you perusing through the guest list in the brochure earlier on, to check out who was in the room. parents in this

room, a lot of high-profile influential people what can they do to help today? i think, you know, what we've just spoke about for the last 30 minutes, 40 minutes which has gone very quick, by the way. i'm watching the clock, waiting for the music to start. we

asked for extra time. it's about telling you guys exactly what we are doing. exactly what we need to happen for not just the 7 fund, for unicef and you guys can do that globally. we're doing it at the moment, and we're

trying our hardest to raise funds, we're trying our hardest to shine a light on all different kinds of situations and areas. but you guys are so powerful and influential and intelligent in so many different ways we just want-, i just wanted

to come here and actually get through this without messing up, first off, and then just to make you aware of exactly what the 7 fund is. i should just point out that none of the funds for this are actually coming from unicef. all the fund raising is on those shoulders of yours. you've

started from scratch. it was-, it's a bold idea you know, when we came up with it, someone turned around to me and said, 'do you really want to have this responsibility?' i didn't even question it, because i know my capabilities i know what i can achieve

i'm going to need quite a bit of help along the way, which is one of the reasons why i'm sat here, but i know how passionate i am about being successful i know that i can make a difference and with sitting here and explaining to you guys exactly what we are doing,

hopefully that gives you the opportunity to actually listen and want to help, and want to help us and want to help unicef and want to help children around the world i think that's, hopefully what we're going to achieve today so caryl, for people sitting in this room

going, 'i'm not sure how i could help,' what kind of things are you after? are you after money are you after contacts? are you after spreading awareness? there are so many different types of people here from different businesses and different backgrounds even if they're thinking they can't help how can they? it's d) all of the above

really, you can help in many ways. first and foremost is obviously fundraising, because it does take dollars to make this happen, but we are interested in your ideas we're interested in your expertise what you think you may have to offer, and we are really interested in your voice. you each have a network

to use that voice to pay attention to the issues for children, to use it in the way that you vote and the politics that you choose that our world leaders should be putting children on their platforms. it should be a moment of discussion. it's not happening we need to start to make this

important. so there are many ways you can get involved with us. unicef.org there's a whole volunteer section you can check that out, too. thank you very much for your time, ladies and gentlemen david beckham, and caryl stern