Sarah, Duchess of York

Sarah Ferguson, philanthropist, activist, fashionista, and Duchess of York  visited Good Day New York to talk about her new movie, "Woineshet," co-directed by Marisa Tomei. It's part of the "Half the Sky" event. Some proceeds from the movie tickets go to benefit CARE, which is an organization that empowers women and girls to fight poverty.

• CARE
  
• HALF THE SKY MOVEMENT
• SARAH FERGUSON FOUNDATION

SARAH'S BIOGRAPHY

The Duchess recently visited the White Ribbon Alliance (known locally as the Safe Motherhood Network Federation or SMNF) and CARE in Nepal. During her two-day visit the Duchess, who launched the White Ribbon Alliance's Million Mums campaign in the UK, met the Prime Minister of Nepal Madhav Kumar Nepal. Her visit highlighted the vital work of the White Ribbon Alliance to achieve UN Millennium Development Goal 5 to prevent the needless toll of maternal deaths, ahead of his attendance at the UN General Assembly in New York in September. She is looking forward to working closely with CARE and WRA to highlight the plight of women in Nepal and India.

The Duchess has recently written the fourth book in her Little Red series of children's books; Little Red to the Rescue (UK) and Little Red's Autumn Adventure (US).

She was a co producer on the film 'The Young Victoria', which has been released in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, France and Australia amongst other territories. It was the closing film at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2009. The Duchess has written two books on the subject, 'Travels with Queen Victoria' and 'Victoria and Albert: Family Life at Osborne House'.

In 1993 she founded Children in Crisis (www.childrenincrisis.org.uk) and remains active in its mission to provide aid and education to forgotten children around the world. She recently toured CiC projects in Liberia (with BBC), Sierra Leone, Chile, Poland, Albania, and Russia and is spearheading its 15th anniversary activity to raise £10 million over the next four years to enable a further 250,000 children in post conflict countries to go to school. To date CIC has donated £18.5m to projects around the world, trained 16,000 children and supported the education of 1m children.

She is a long-standing patron to a number of British charities, including the Teenage Cancer Trust (who now have 11 units in the UK), Tommy's - The Baby Charity, The African Caribbean Leukemia Trust, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and The Chemical Dependency Centre. She also supports and works with Mental Disability Rights International, CARE International, and Les P'tits Cracks.

From 1997-2007 she served as U.S. spokesperson for Weight Watchers International, Inc and during that time she distinguished herself as a passionate wellness advocate and proponent for healthy weight-loss and weight management. She was a founding supporter of The American Cancer Society's "Great American Weigh In," an annual campaign aimed at raising awareness of the link between excess weight and cancer. She was also a voluntary spokesperson for the American Heart Association.

In 2006 DSSOY established the Sarah Ferguson Foundation in New York to fund programmes that promote education and wellness worldwide.

The Duchess has served as guest editor on BBC Radio 4 Today programme and regularly contributes to BBC Radio 2's primetime lifestyle show "Steve Wright".

The Duchess has written several books including 'What I know now: Lessons Learnt The Hard Way'; a 12 book series called 'Helping Hands' with Lloydspharmacy and a five book children's series about the adventures of 'Little Red'. She has also written children's book 'Tea for Ruby' published by Simon and Schuster; which went to no. 6 on the New York Times best seller list.

The Duke and Duchess of York have two daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie York The Duke and Duchess divorced amicably in 1996 after 10 years of marriage and the couple are frequently cited as a model for civilised divorce and successful co-parenting.