Alicia Keys...keeping children alive.

 Keys was born Alicia Augello Cook on January 25, 1981, in New York City. She is the only child of  her parents.

Keys is the co-founder and Global Ambassador of Keep a Child Alive.
In 2003 Alicia Keys and Leigh Blake, longtime AIDS activist and film/TV producer, co-founded Keep a Child Alive (KCA), a people’s movement that provides life-saving AIDS medicine and surrounding care to children and families in Africa and India. KCA also provides support to AIDS orphans left behind to keep the most vulnerable children out of harms way. 
She is the host of the annual KCA Black Ball. Keys was also the musical director for the 2006 Keep A Child Alive Charity Gala, and offered a private concert as a prize in an auction to benefit the charity.

Keys was invited to Africa to do a concert in 2002, and while she was there, she went to AIDS clinics. "People begged me to help them get drugs that weren't available to them. It was crazy — so many of them were younger than me and suffering from things I've never had to deal with. I realized this is our generation's holocaust." Click to continue...

Keys and U2 lead singer Bono recorded a cover version of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up", in recognition of World AIDS Day 2005. Keys and Bono's version of the song was retitled "Don't Give Up (Africa)" to reflect the nature of the charity it was benefiting. 

“We must come together – individuals, governments, corporations, philanthropists and artists – as one and fight for the rights of children and families suffering unnecessarily from this dreadful disease,” she told guests at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006. "We must never give up until AIDS treatment and realistic prevention messages go hand in hand across the world; until we realize that keeping mothers alive is critical to the well being of the world’s children; and until we can stand together and say, “We did not sit idly by and watch an entire continent perish.”

 

Keys who has won over 90 awards including 14 Grammys supports over 20 charities including Frum tha Ground Up, a non-profit organization that aids children and teenagers with scholarships.
In July 2005 she performed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of the worldwide Live 8 concerts to raise awareness of the poverty in Africa and to pressure the G8 leaders to take action.

Also in 2005, Keys performed on ReAct Now: Music & Relief and Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast, two benefit programs that raised money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. In July 2007, Keys and Keith Urban performed The Rolling Stones' 1969 song "Gimme Shelter" at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey at the American leg of the Live Earth concerts.
Keys performed Donny Hathaway's 1973 song "Someday We'll All Be Free" at the America: A Tribute to Heroes televised benefit concert following the September 11 attacks. She participated in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert which took place at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2007, along with other various artists.

She recorded a theme song for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. She joined Joss Stone and Jay-Z on the effort, which served as a theme song for Obama's campaign. For her work, Keys was honored at the 2009 BET Awards with the Humanitarian Award. 

Keys performed the song "Prelude to a Kiss", retitled "Send Me an Angel", from her 2007 album As I Am for the "Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief" telethon in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In December 2012, Keys performed alongside many other native New Yorkers in 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy.

In December 2012, Keys' charity raised a staggering $2.9 million for her AIDS-relief charity Thursday at a celebrity-studded affair at New York City's famed Apollo Theater where she also honoured Oprah Winfrey for her humanitarian efforts.

Alicia said: 'There are places in the world where Keep a Child Alive serves where they have a Hurricane Sandy every day.
'They don't have electricity, they don't have heat... and that made me more invigorated to make sure this Black Ball happened.'

AWARDS:

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers honored Keys with the Golden Note Award, an award given to artists "who have achieved extraordinary career milestones"

Her work in Africa was documented in the documentary Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland and was available in April 2008.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards is an award presented annually by the American National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music and literature. Keys has won fourteen of these awards from thirty-one nominations.

In 2011 she won The first PPAS (Professional  Performing Arts School) Alumni Outstanding Achievement award . 

In 2012 she received a recognition from the UN Social Innovation.
The list is endless...

To crown it all, this special 'girl on fire' performed at President Obama's 2nd Inauguration ball.

Talent, fame, heart, soul, beauty and brain...all in one person! More power to you Alicia :)