Poverty and the environment

Sept. 18, 2005

View this article at the Philadelphia Inquirer website

Celebrities, moguls and government leaders attending a U.N. summit mingled at a New York restaurant this week to support programs that aim to combat poverty by preserving the environment.

Wyclef Jean, whose nonprofit foundation provides food and scholarships in his native Haiti, endorsed planting trees in hurricane-battered areas of the island.

"Sometimes you don't have to wait for government to change before you make the change yourself," said Jean, who performed after dinner for guests that included former Vice President Al Gore, media mogul Ted Turner, singer Angélique Kidjo of Benin, actresses Rosario Dawson, Sophia Bush and Kerry Washington, and officials from Sweden, Finland, Norway and Gambia.

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