Charlize Theron unveils philanthropy journey

NEW YORK

Charlize Theron has expressed the moment her role in philanthropy clicked into place to encourage people to find ways to help people in need. 

The Oscar-winning actress had been talking with community leaders in her homeland of South Africa about how they could tackle the AIDS epidemic there.

“We heard them say, ‘We know what to do, but we just need the resources to do it,’” Theron said on Nov. 2 at the Town & Country Philanthropy Summit in Manhattan.

“And I thought, ‘Oh, wait, I can do that,” the actress said.

As a result, she created the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project in 2007 to fund community leaders in South Africa who were already working on the AIDS epidemic and then expanded to gender equity issues.

“Our philosophy is always listening and they’ll tell us what we need to do and then we help with that,” Theron told The Associated Press in an interview backstage before her appearance at the summit.

“Philanthropy, for me, comes down to a very simple question: ‘What can I do?’,” said Stellene Volandes, Town & Country’s editor in chief. “When you feel like there is something you might be able to do, it means you still have hope, and it gives each and every one of us a role in making the world better.”

Volandes said philanthropy has been part of Town & Country essentially since the magazine launched in 1846. She said the Philanthropy Summit began in 2013 at a time when “the age of the anonymous donor was close to being over.”