New York, 20 September—In her new role as UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador, British actor Emma Watson will call on men and boys worldwide to join the movement for gender equality today. The actor who built an immense global fan-base through her role as Hermione in the Harry Potter series is co-hosting a UN Women special event for the HeForShe campaign from the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The event aims to kick-start a global solidarity movement in support of women’s rights and full equality between women and men.

“I want men to take up this mantle. So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice, but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too—reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more true and complete version of themselves,” Ms. Watson said.

This is Ms. Watson’s first event at the United Nations and comes on the heels of her first visit as a UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador to Uruguay. Moderated by renowned CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer, the HeForShe event today will put men at the center of activism and dialogue to end persistent inequalities faced by women and girls around the world. Over the next 12 months, the campaign intends to mobilize one billion men and boys as advocates and agents of change for gender equality.

"We need boys and men working with us. HeForShe is a global solidarity movement to end gender inequality by 2030. The goal is to engage men and boys as advocates and agents of change in the effort to achieve equality. When women are empowered, the whole of humanity benefits," said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

A highlight of the event will be the activation of the HeForShe map— a real-time map with a geo locator that captures men’s engagement with the initiative around the world over the next 12 months and provides a tally against the campaign’s one billion target. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is to announce the initiative’s first goal, which is to mobilize the first 100,000 world citizens in this way. The top UN official, through his map activation, will be counted as the ‘number one man’.

The event will bring together renowned personalities, including senior UN officials such as UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, along with actor Kiefer Sutherland and civil society representatives to discuss the central role men and boys can play in the achievement of gender equality. At the event, the HeForShe new branding and website will be unveiled, along with a new Public Service Announcement.

- See more at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/20-september-heforshe-press-release#sthash.3JpbJGkn.dpuf

Source: http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2014/9/20-september-heforshe-press-release

Question: Would you dump an ice bucket of toilet water on your head?
Answer: Well... Maybe if Matt Damon did it first!  

Just when you thought you had seen it all in the #ALS Ice Bucket challenge... Matt Damon ups the ante with the help of....Wait for it... His toilet! Damon was dodging the dare from buddies, Ben Affleck and Jimmy Kimmel because he  was conflicted about dumping a bucket of  clean water over his head when nearly one billion people across the globe don't have access to safe H20.   More than just a famous face with a cause, Damon is the co-founder of  Water.org and a hands on hero in this humanitarian effort to provide clean water and  solutions to proper sanitation. 

However, instead of flushing the #ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, Damon made it a win-win for both his foundation, water.org and the ALS association.  During his pre-dump monologue Damon explains why he turned to the porcelain gods for a solution to his #ALS ice bucket conundrum.  

"It posted kind of a problem for me. Not only because there is a drought in California but because I co-founded water.org and we envision a day when everyone has access to a clean drink of water and there are about 800 million people in the world who don't and so dumping a clean bucket of water on my head seemed a little crazy. We also want to bring sanitation to the 2.4 billion people on the Earth who don't have it so I thought a good thing to do to tie those things together would be to take some toilet water (this is truly toilet water, I've been collecting toilet water from toilets around the house..." Damon says with a laugh as he scoops water from his toilet! 

"Now for those of you (like my wife) who think this is disgusting, the water in our toilets in the west is actually cleaner than the water that most people in the developing world have access too," said Damon.

The Oscar winner walks and talks while leading us through his bathroom and eventually outdoors as  he carries out the challenge (being the first person to dump an ice bucket of  toilet water on his head). Damon keeps the tradition flowing by challenging George Clooney, Bono and Tom Brady.  Although it's not shown in Damon's video, we're guessing a hot soapy shower immediately followed the challenge!

For more information about #ALS please visit www.alsa.org