Petra Nemcova

If there’s one thing you think of when it comes to supermodels, it’s normally not what’s on the inside. But the exception to that rule is the gorgeous Petra Nemcova, who has one of the biggest hearts we know. After surviving the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, Petra was inspired to create the Happy Hearts Fund, to create education and sustainable opportunities for children in areas hit by disaster. Formed two years ago, today Happy Hearts affects 20,500 children and over 100,000 community members in 12 countries on five continents. This Monday, we headed to her annual gala to find out just what is behind her mission. Fellow do-gooder supermodel Molly Sims tells us of her friend, “The most amazing thing about Petra is not her looks; it is that she works every angle for these children. She’ll do whatever it takes.” The Masquerade in Venice Gala, featuring a performance by Estelle, showed a tremendous amount of work and passion, ultimately raising almost $3.5 million.

In the last year, Petra tells us that Happy Hearts has grown “one thousand percent. And because we have strategic partnerships,” she says, “we’ve been able to choose different companies and different governments to work with. We set more goals each year.” That night Petra honored Wyclef Jean for his organization Yelé Haiti, which helps bring hope to his native country. Happy Hearts helps Yelé Haiti to implement computers in schools.

When asked about one incidence of specifically helping out a child, Petra tells us although there are many stories, the children in Cambodia are particularly close to her heart: “The ones we are helping are growing up in garbage dumps and most of them are orphans,” she says. “And they’ve been eating rotten foods in order to survive or sniffing glue to overcome hunger. And now they are getting the best possible education in Cambodia; they are in the best international schools where other children can come as they go, and then they can go to Yale, Harvard, any university. For them, when you ask them what they want, they don’t say bicycles, they don’t say a computer game, they say the best possible education because when they come back to Cambodia, they can help the country so the children of Cambodia don’t have to suffer as they did.”

Petra is truly an inspiration, proving that it’s possible to be beautiful both inside and out. And by focusing her efforts on children and education, she shows us that education is truly the key to change.

Estelle