Last week, Pulse supermodel Oraine Barrett was part of a celebrity team that visited Equatorial Guinea to participate in an African summit organised by the Leon H Sullivan Foundation. Barrett worked with a local orphanage, bringing hope and cheer to the youngsters there. Interestingly, the Sullivan Summit is one of two charities in which Barrett is currently engaged. He has also been travelling for Macy’s, one of his key clients, to highlight that company’s work with Glamorama, a major charity event.

A 20-year-old initiative, the Leon H Sullivan Summit is the first internationally recognised summit of world leaders, convened on African soil, by a non-governmental private foundation.

The summit is held biennially in an African nation to highlight key issues and best practices, stimulate discussion, define opportunities, promote private enterprise and foster high-level strategic partnerships. It is the embodiment of Leon Sullivan’s dream to reconnect the nations and people of Africa with a displaced diaspora across the world. The summit has also brought focus to developmental opportunities and initiatives in the areas of infrastructure development, tourism, health, environment, and education.

Recently, the summit has delivered (in addition to high-level economic dialogue and engagement) a water drilling rig and the production of a clean water well to serve more than 40,000 people in a selected village in Arusha, Tanzania; the acquisition and distribution of specially treated mosquito nets to create more than 10 malaria-free villages; the shipping of more than $100,000 worth of textbooks to the school system in Tanzania; and the adoption of a local school to revitalise the facility and to make it conducive for more than 200 students to learn. The summits have been attended most recently by former US presidents George W Bush and William J Clinton.

Oraine Barrett is currently the face of several Ralph Lauren brands and continues to command attention globally. A winner of Pulse’s Caribbean Model Search, Barrett is also a Vogue favourite and a Baby Phat poster boy. His clients include Liz Claiborne, John Bartlett, Phat Farm, Abercrombie & Fitch, Pepe Jeans, Lord & Taylor, L’uomo Vogue, Italian Vogue, Japanese Vogue, GQ, and a host of others.