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 Penélope Cruz is not only a great actress, but also an equally great humanitarian, who has got her heart in the right place. People and animals, our lady has the time and sincere heart to help.
Cruz donated a large part of her salary of The Hi-Lo Country (1998), her first Hollywood production, to Mother Teresa's children's sanctuary in Calcutta, India. Early in her career, Penélope also volunteered for one week at Mother Teresa's hospital, which left a huge stamp on her life. In 1997, she also spent two months volunteering in Uganda along with her boyfriend at the time, Faiz Ahmad.
In 1999, Penélope and her then-boyfriend Nacho Cano founded a non-government organisation called Sabera Foundation and went directly to India to shoot a documentary called 'Calcutta, Life at Death Station' for the Foundation, which was aiming to raise money for deprived children. The Foundation built a home, a school and a clinic for homeless girls and TB sufferers. Penélope described the Foundation with these words, "Sabera has created an environment for young women and children to improve their lives and receive equal opportunities despite lack of resources. I'm honoured to be a part of this foundation which will make a difference in the lives of so many." The Foundation no longer exists because of the founders different opinions.
On her return from her last trip, Ms. Cruz had a breakdown, which she describes as the worst period of her life, "I had a horrible, horrible breakdown. It was just huge, like the worst period of my life, and it lasted for a couple of months."
It was a turn in her life and she decided to make some changes in her life, "We raise a lot of money for these girls that were living in the street in India and are now in a house studying. So I couldn't delay it. But when I came back here, I broke down--and also because of everything I saw in India. There is more pain there than you can imagine. I couldn't even cry from what I was seeing because I had to work. So you become like a stone. And then once I left, everything came out. I decided I had two choices: I could go down, or up. So I quit smoking and started a much healthier diet, and started meditating again."
Sabera also released a CD called 'Voices of Hope' in November 19, 2002 which Penélope herself performed a song together with guitar player, Vicente Amigo. Other famous artists who worked on the project was for example, Sting, Ricky Martin, Alanis Morissette, Antonio Banderas and Elton John. Unfortunly is it impossible to get the documentary because it only aired on TV in Spain and the CD is very rare but if you have luck you can find it online.
Today she is the face of the WFP - World Food Program (2005), ONE Campaign (2005/2006), (RED) Campaign (2006), ALDO Fights AIDS (2006), targetted to end world poverty and Live Earth (2007) to stop global warming. She also supports smaller causes like designing a necklace in 2003 for sale to a charity auction for Sotheby's which got sold for $5000 and giving away her personal belongings, for example a pair of shoes to get sold to raise money for different causes.
"She'll travel anywhere to help people," All the Pretty Horses director Billy Bob Thornton says. "I mean, she'll run herself into the ground to go someplace for somebody. Look, we're making the movies we want to make: we're making money to support our families; we're the luckiest people in the world. But she just cares so deeply that I think it'll be her downfall. This is a long-winded way of saying that she's co-dependent. And it makes life pretty tough sometimes."
In 2007 she lended out a 2 hour "date" on her movie premiere and the winner was the highest bidder at an ebay auction for the nonprofit mission statement: American Friends of the Phelophepa Train. The winning bid was US $5,000.00! The organisation focuses on children's charities in Africa and wants them to have a good life with great health, education, social environment and also threatening diseases like HIV/Aids and cancer.
Penélope is also a great lover of animals and has been a vegetarian since the filming of All the Pretty Horses and has taken care of several stray cats.
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MANOLETE (2007)
ELEGY (2007)
VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA (2008)
