Quotes from Liya Kebede

Creative new health strategies like micro-insurance for poor people or Kangaroo care for pre-term babies are transforming health outcomes in even the most low-resource settings. Dedication and innovation are transforming health care worldwide.

In a hundred years, how do you want the world to be? Everybody should get together to make the world a better place.

I'm Christian. Growing up in Ethiopia, it's half-Christian and half-Muslim. You grow up with Muslim kids. I'm very much aware of their religion.

It is important for me that I represent a brand that reflects my personality.

It's not just Ethiopia, but Africa in general - most of the media concentrates on what's not going well. But there is so much beauty there. When you go, it changes everything. It changes you, your life, and the way you see things. The challenge is changing the image of Africa that's been anchored in people for years now.

I am always touched when friends make contributions to my foundation on my behalf.

What I love most about Mother's Day is that I am acknowledged and honored for being a mother.

Prenatal care is one of the most effective ways to reduce maternal mortality because it identifies complications or high risks before emergency situations.

Take good care of your skin and hydrate. If you have good skin, everything else will fall into place.

I want to do action, romantic comedy, and I love drama.

The desert loves me. I love the desert. It's nice to be in the heat in Africa. I love it.

Traveling around Ethiopia, I saw dozens of abandoned textile factories. People kept asking me to help them find work. So I thought I could make use of my experience in fashion to commercialize their products outside of Ethiopia.

It's always a tricky thing, trying to make aid sustainable.

I think, first of all, every time you want to play somebody who is real is always challenging and always scary, because you are given a responsibility of someone's real life.

I know how much parents love buying clothes for their kids and how they want to give them something new in the closet.

I never thought modeling would become my career. I thought it was something I'd do to pay my way through college.

The world needs our mothers.

Dying in childbirth is something that's not new; it's been going on for ages, and so it's not something that people focus on; it's not something that gets funded a lot, and it's exactly for that reason that we are losing mothers all the time, and we have kids with no mothers.

Midwives and doctors play a crucial role preventing unnecessary maternal deaths. They educate women about nutrition, health and family planning. And they step in when complications arise.

Miriam Were has made outstanding contributions to public health in the developing world. She brings basic medical services to women and children in East Africa.

We should work to guarantee that there is a midwife or health worker by every woman's side during childbirth.

If you don't have a dream in life, I don't know what you have. You have to want something beyond your reach; it's exciting when it works out.

For my diet, I choose mostly organic. But in general, I am a big believer in trying to strike a balance with everything.

If nothing else, I want women to understand that they are powerful. If you look back at history, in almost every big moment, in every leap forward, you find ordinary women at the core. We have more ability to make changes in the world than we can imagine if we have the courage to try.