Actress Lupita Nyong’o is among the five honorees of the latest issue of Variety magazine’s Power of women edition.
In the cover, Ms Nyong’o dazzles in a blue trench coat with the collar turned up accompanied by an Afro hair do.
Her profile in the latest issue talks about her involvement with women in war-torn northern Uganda where she is working with Mother Health Intl. an organisation providing relief in impoverished or war-torn regions by creating birthing centers.
“What these women are going through in northern Uganda is very much what we witness happening in the story I’m telling right now in Eclipsed. It’s a tragedy that women’s bodies are used as tools of war. When that happens, the trauma of war affects birthing. Mortality rates of children are so high and mothers die at such a high rate in these areas. It’s so important to change that,” she said during the interview with Variety.
Her involvement with the organisation is parallel to her recent act in the play Eclipsed which highlights the plight of women during a civil war in Liberia where one of the play characters delivers a baby.
Ms Nyong’o further said that she had never thought of birthing practices until her sister introduced her to the executive director of Mother Health Intl. Rachel Zaslow.
The Oscar winner’s love for Uganda is evident as during a shoot of the Queen of Katwe movie. She spent days in the East African country did not set foot in Kenya until two months later.
After the Uganda shoot Ms Nyong’o rocked a grasshopper green gown and an Afro up-do to the Cannes Film Festival Opening and credited her hair style to the inspiration by Ugandan women.
Other women who have featured in the power of women edition are actress Julianne Moore, designer Vera Wang, news anchor Megyn Kelly and American Ballet Theater’s (ABT’s) first African-American principal dancer Misty Copeland.
