Annie Lennox: ‘I had an actual deep dive into the world of poverty’

Every time Annie Lennox touched down at Heathrow after one in every of her many humanitarian journeys, she could be overcome by a really particular feeling. “These initiatives gave me a passport in. I had a chance to go on to rape disaster centres, orphanages, to be taken to hospitals and faculties and clinics – I had an actual deep dive into the world of poverty,” she says, speaking over Zoom from her residence in LA. “It was deep, I can inform you. Each time I’d come again to the airport within the UK I’d have this type of interior sense of… I need to wake everyone up.”

Is it barely agonising for a multimillionaire to inform the plenty to open their eyes to the actual world? The previous couple of years have seen a number of incidences of movie star do-gooding miss the mark – from Gal Gadot’s tone-deaf stance on the Israel-Palestine battle final 12 months, to Thandiwe Newton’s tearful apology to dark-skinned girls, or unsought movie star movies decrying racism throughout the peak of the Black Lives Matter motion. As a rule there’s one thing very Geri Halliwell on the UN in 2009 about the entire thing; one thing that doesn’t fairly add up or, a minimum of, is laced with a specific model of cynicism.

Lennox cemented her standing as a real British icon within the Eighties, as one half of synth-pop duo Eurythmics, finally promoting greater than 80 million albums. She has a group of 4 Grammys, a loyal fan base to this present day – and now, a major stake within the humanitarian world.

Away from her enviable profession, it’s her work exterior of music that she’s speaking about at present. And it’s clearly what drives her most. Lennox’s vitality is palpable by the display screen; that acquainted delicate accent – grown from her working class roots in Aberdeenshire – sings as she remembers the place this philanthropic journey started. “It was a type of stirring in me,” she says – it was by no means a query of desirous to be a rich rock star (which after all she is, she provides) however “desirous to utilise no matter voice I had in the direction of empowerment, in the direction of inspiration, in the direction of justice”.

To her plain credit score, Lennox has not solely put her cash the place her mouth is but additionally, maybe extra importantly, taken motion. Impressed first by the folks she met elevating consciousness of assist work by music, she began a non-profit known as SING in 2007, and NGO The Circle, a 12 months later. The Circle’s massive name to motion is international feminism, which Lennox and her workforce are at pains to get throughout. Their message is constant that one lady’s drawback is each lady’s drawback and geography is irrelevant. The Circle works by bringing grassroots activists collectively in collaboration, and offering monetary or sensible help, like authorized groups as an illustration, to attain set targets centered on financial empowerment and ending violence in opposition to girls and ladies.

“Our identify felt so excellent as a result of it’s all about that notion of connecting, and holding fingers or standing shoulder to shoulder,” Raakhi Shah, CEO of the non-profit, says. “It’s about bringing everybody spherical a bodily [or metaphorical] desk.” It was based at a time when the phrase “feminist” wasn’t as accepted as it’s at present, Shah and Lennox agree. Now they’re decided to vocalise the notion that every one feminism must be international and intersectional.

And it’s making headway. A few of their present initiatives embrace the marketing campaign for EU laws for a dwelling wage for garment staff dealing with a number of the most precarious working situations on this planet – for this, they’re supporting Kalpona Akter, co-founder of the Bangladesh Centre for Staff Solidarity (BCWS). They’ve centres in Sri Lanka, a management programme in Uganda and help the Marie Colvin Journalists’ Community. Within the UK, they’ve partnered with Sikh Girls’s Assist to sort out the detrimental influence of exploitation of girls and ladies within the South Asian group.

Over Worldwide Girls’s Day they launched a brand new marketing campaign – Hear Her. Empower Her – to help girls globally, which brings collectively survivor-led movies and tales from Uganda, Sri Lanka, South Africa, the UK and different nations. The intention is to amplify voices of these girls who’ve survived abuse and poverty and tried to eradicate a number of the disgrace that perpetuates the cycle. Since the specter of gender-based violence escalates throughout occasions of battle, their construction can be a well timed assist to the plight of girls at present in or fleeing Ukraine.

The previous 12 months has been one more tough one relating to violence in opposition to girls and ladies within the UK, spent reeling from the deaths of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Ashling Murphy and lots of others. How did Lennox really feel watching the 12 months unfold? “Each single lack of life, or abuse or violent act in opposition to a younger lady or woman or baby or anybody for that matter … leaves us collectively reeling,” Lennox says. She’s eager to reiterate that violence in opposition to girls and ladies is a world drawback. “And the factor is that we all know each just isn’t essentially reported in the identical approach, that it’s solely when the media actually runs a narrative that it will get that quantity of protection.

“What I’m attempting to say is each is as tragic as the opposite. And there’s no distinction for my part. So I hear concerning the lack of one individual’s life and I’m simply horrified. And I additionally know that it’s a tradition of rape, a tradition of violence, homicide, stalking, all of it, all over the place. And that’s the greater message past the person story of the tragedy of 1 individual’s life, you already know. It impacts households, it impacts communities, it impacts nations. So think about if we have been to report on each single lack of life over the past decade…”

Whereas the sentiment is after all true, it’s tough to assume on this approach. The world and its points, particularly points introduced to girls, are so huge that it turns into near a sense of nihilism to sit down with the enormity of all of it for too lengthy. It’s jarring and oddly self-conscious when a particularly well-known, rich musician says that she “identifies with each lady on the planet”, which Lennox does later, however nonetheless there’s a heat to her enthusiasm that’s tough to disregard.

Lennox says she’s now “prioritised” The Circle in her day-to-day life, not often (if ever) performing, as a substitute pivoting her focus to her political and social activism. The Circle, which started round a eating desk, is now a multi-faceted operation that has presence in dozens of networks and nations world wide. “It’s nearly a lifestyle for me,” Lennox says. “The most effective that we will do is to encourage folks to take motion. And that’s as a result of we’re all a bit overwhelmed, to be frank with you.”

Does she really feel overwhelmed, too? “Sure,” she says instantly. “And that’s one factor I’ve to [personally] combat, as a result of I’m so porous in a approach. Like I see the pictures of girls [in Ukraine] about to offer beginning in basements and it undoes me. This type of horror [makes me] waver nearly to the purpose of, like, I don’t know what to do.

“After which I believe, nicely, my resolution is the work that I’m doing already. And I believe for an individual like myself, the privilege that I’ve being safe and protected means I have to contribute. I really feel that it’s important for me to search out my method to contribute.”

The Circle helps girls and ladies who’re decided to forge a future free from violence and inequality. Donations will allow The Circle and its grassroots companions engaged on the entrance line to help extra girls dealing with disaster.