The two celebrities were reportedly part of a star-studded ceremony Tuesday night at the United Nations.
Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez [J-Lo] and her singer husband Marc Anthony, British entrepreneur Richard Branson, former first daughter Chelsea Clinton and broadcaster Walter Cronkite combined to honor nine "unsung heroes of poverty eradication." as the winners of The Global Microentrepreneurship Awards.
The nine poor and low-income winners - from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, South Africa, India, China, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Peru - all used small loans to establish successful businesses, according to published reports.
Cronkite reportedly read a message from the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is traveling in the Mideast, praised the winners and the International Year of Microcredit 2005. With access to small loans, people can move "beyond day-to-day survival, to earn and save more, "and protect themselves better against life's unexpected setbacks," he said, according to published reports.
Annan cautioned the VIP audience that "these victories are too rare still in this complicated world of ours" and for microcredit to become a real success business must become involved on a large scale.
Perhaps the loudest applause was given not to a celebrity but to Mama Fatu, a 70-year-old widow from Sierra Leone who took out a US$25 microcredit loan in 1998 to start grinding tobacco to produce snuff. She diversified into vegetable production, rice farming and brewing local gin.
"I am illiterate" the elderly woman in a traditional African blue dress said, clutching her glass-engraved award. "I don't know how to go through immigration procedures, but today I am in New York."
J-Lo 'Wants' To Go Back On Tour
Pop diva Jennifer Lopez has indicated that she has been unable to find the time to go on tour with her 'music'.
Combining her music career with a movie career as well as becoming brand Lopez, selling everything from animal's skins to perfume has left J-Lo with little time for actually performing live.
She said recently: "Because of my movie career I haven't toured much. I haven't really had the pleasure of really performing for my fans and touring and stuff like that."
-- Compiled from wire reports
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