BY AYALA BEN-YEHUDA
Even as he prepares to release a new album, Latin superstar Ricky Martin is marshaling his stardom to help the world's poor and exploited children.
Martin's commitment earned him the Latin Recording Academy's 2006 person of the year award. The Academy will honor Martin at a tribute concert and dinner Nov. 1 at New York's Sheraton Hotel & Towers.
The event takes place the same day that the newly launched MTV Tr3s, targeting young U.S. Latinos, premieres Martin's "Unplugged" special.
The concert and dinner will raise funds for the Ricky Martin Foundation, which combats sexual trafficking of children, provides creative outlets for disadvantaged youth and helps victims of natural disasters, among other causes.
"We are very grateful to the Academy for giving this recognition to Ricky," says Ángel Saltos, executive director of the Ricky Martin Foundation. "The power that music has over large audiences to promote behavior change is incredible. We wish more artists would join this fight."
In receiving the person of the year award, Martin joins an elite group. Previously, this award has gone to highly influential figures in Latin music, including Emilio Estefan, Vicente Fernández, Gilberto Gil, Julio Iglesias, José José and Carlos Santana.
Martin has sold millions of albums worldwide and was the first solo Latin male artist of the Nielsen SoundScan era to reach No. 1 on The Billboard Hot 100. His "Unplugged" album on Sony BMG hits stores Nov. 7.
Academy president Gabriel Abaroa says his organization's persons of the year "must be true icons . . . who have been able to use their abilities and gifts for the benefit of others."
Citing the combination of Martin's global celebrity and his fight against child prostitution, Abaroa says Martin's unanimous selection by the Academy board of trustees "made all the sense in the world."
The Ricky Martin Foundation is based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and its centerpiece is the program called People for Children, which educates governments and the public about sexual slavery and forced labor, and advocates for children's education, health and social justice.
Key to the foundation's work are partnerships with nongovernmental organizations, local authorities and the private sector.
This year, Martin taped public service announcements and presented an InterAmerican Development Bank documentary about human trafficking that aired on TV in Latin America. The five-country "Call and Live" campaign with the International Organization for Migration also promoted hot lines for victims to get help.
Martin's foundation also partnered with Microsoft in Latin America and the Caribbean for an online safety campaign for children, Navega Protegido.
Testifying before the U.S. Congress' House International Relations Committee in September, the singer said his fight against child prostitution began when he helped three homeless girls in Calcutta, India, get into a shelter in 2002.
He called on the United States to ratify the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child and provide more anti-trafficking aid to foreign governments and organizations.
Martin, who is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, told a 2004 United Nations press conference, "I started working when I was 9 years old, but it was my choice. These children do not have a choice. They're forced into slavery."
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Ricky Martin Foundation provided clothing, educational toys and diapers to refugees in Houston, and made donations to two middle schools there to support counseling and after-school programs.
Other foundation projects include a partnership with Habitat for Humanity to build 224 homes in Thailand for tsunami victims, and a summer camp for poor children in Puerto Rico.
Martin's charitable initiatives have earned him many awards, including Billboard's 2004 Spirit of Hope award. Abaroa says honoring Martin as person of the year is "a way of showing the world that he's not alone . . . that the music community is behind [him]."
