Hollywood actress, Alexandra Paul, to train local actors in Sierra Leone

February 21, 2012

Alexandra Paul, an actress (best known for her role as Lt. Stephanie Holden in TV series “Baywatch”) and social activist, has teamed up with Population Media Center (PMC) to train local actors in Sierra Leone from February 23 – March 1, 2012 for PMC’s newest radio series.

I am honored to be working with Population Media Center in Sierra Leone. Coaching actors for PMC’s latest radio drama allows me to meld two passions of mine: my 30 years of experience as an actress in Hollywood and my belief in the benefits of family planning.

– Alexandra Paul

PMC produces serialized dramas on radio and television to improve the health and well-being of people around the world and encourage positive behavior change.

The radio drama series will be addressing the following issues in this west African country:

• Reproductive health and family planning
• Adolescent reproductive health and unwanted pregnancies
• Gender-Based Violence
• HIV/AIDS
• Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) and Stigma
• Obstetric Fistula, Delayed Care, and Antenatal Care

Paul has been a long-time advocate of population issues. She has worked to educate thousands of students in Los Angeles on the importance of the issue and is dedicated to finding effective solutions. In 1997, Paul was honored by the United Nations Environmental Programme for her work on population and the environment.

Now, Paul is taking her passion across the world to Sierra Leone by helping PMC create a highly engaging drama that will help empower women and promote the use of family planning. PMC is committed to building strong media in all of the countries that it works in, and investing in the talent of their actors is critical to producing effective programs – as it is the characters in PMC’s programs that inspire audiences to change their lives and the world. PMC is thrilled to have her involvement in this exciting new series.

ABOUT ALEXANDRA PAUL:
Internationally recognized for her 5-year starring role as Lt. Stephanie Holden in the hit series Baywatch, Alexandra Paul began her acting career at age 18 starring in the highly rated telefilm Paper Dolls. She then starred in the Warner Bros. motion picture American Flyers opposite Kevin Costner, Dragnet opposite Tom Hanks & Dan Ackroyd, Eight Million Ways to Die opposite Jeff Bridges & Andy Garcia, Stephen King’s Christine, Spyhard with Leslie Nielsen, and two films opposite Pierce Brosnan.

But acting is far from Alexandra’s only interest. Alexandra was honored by the ACLU of Southern California as their ‘2005 Activist of the Year’ for her long history of fighting for the environment, voting rights and peace issues. In 1997 the United Nations commended Alexandra for her environmental activism. In 1999, she won the International Green Cross award. She walked across America for over five weeks on The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament, and has been arrested over a dozen times for protesting at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site.

ABOUT POPULATION MEDIA CENTER (PMC):
Population Media Center (PMC) works worldwide to bring about stabilization of human population numbers at a level that can be sustained by the world’s natural resources and to lessen the harmful impact of humanity on the earth’s environment. PMC uses entertainment media to change cultural attitudes and individual behavior with regard to health and social issues. To achieve this, PMC adopted the Sabido methodology, which uses long-running serialized melodramas, written and produced in participating countries by local people in local languages. Characters are created that gradually evolve into positive role models for the audience. The emotional bonds that the audience forms with the characters and stories help inspire audiences to make positive changes in their lives. PMC’s serial dramas have addressed issues such as the use of family planning, adoption of small family norms, avoidance of AIDS, elevation of women’s status, protection of children, and related social and health goals, depending upon the relevance of each to the policies of the country in which PMC is working.  Scientific research has shown that PMC’s programs lead to population-wide behavior change.