Actress Driver's tsunami mission

Driver says she will help with physical rebuilding if asked

British actress Minnie Driver is to travel to Southern Asia on behalf of the charity Oxfam to help with the rebuilding effort following the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Driver, who has been a long-time campaigner on behalf of some of the poorest people in the region, told BBC World Service's The Interview programme she would shortly be heading to the worst-affected areas to help maintain awareness of what had happened.

"I'm doing whatever I'm asked to do, and above and beyond that I might be going to Bangladesh with Oxfam, [although] it looks more likely to be Banda Aceh or Thailand," she said.

"Certainly the Thai relief effort is something that I'm very interested in helping out."

Consciousness-raising

Driver is well-known for her humanitarian work in Southern Asia, where she has been a long-time advocate of fair trade in the region.

She said that while she would help with the physical rebuilding of the destroyed areas if asked, she felt the most important thing she could do there is consciousness-raising.

Celebrity is useless, it's a weird appendage that does nothing until you do something with it Minnie Driver

"I think that's the most you can ask someone like me to do," she added.

"I can get out there, I'm a strong girl, I'll rebuild whatever they tell me to do.

"But really it's about raising the profile, reminding people in the months and years to come that it's a continued relief effort."

Driver stressed that the most important thing required in the affected areas was money - over the long term.

However she also stressed that, while the tsunami was a natural disaster, there are a great many lives lost due to poverty - and these deaths are preventable.

"There's nothing anybody could have done about those plates rubbing together under the Indian ocean," she said.

"We can stop poverty. There are man-made disasters that we can stop. Trade can heal poverty in our world - it's an absolute globally economic fact."

She urged the G8 group of the world's richest countries to "make that decision."

And she also said she would like a role in lobbying governments, as other high-profile anti-poverty campaigners do, such as Bob Geldof and U2 singer Bono.

"I hope I would get the chance to do that," she stated.

"You do what you can... if I'm going out to Banda Aceh and rebuilding schools, mosques, homes, whatever is needed, then you do what you can at the level that you can."

Continued campaign

Driver explained that her interest in Oxfam and charity work began when she was a fundraiser at school.

She stressed that since she had become famous, she felt it important to put that fame to use.

Driver's anti-poverty efforts have focused on female textile workers

"I am no more schooled in humanity, global politics, economics or anything - however people seem to pay attention when celebrities open their mouths.

"So I took it upon myself to become educated about trade, and how that it is the greatest tool that we have to alleviate poverty in our world."

In particular, she has worked to raise the profile of female garment workers, as "they seem to bear the brunt of the incredibly unfair trade rules that exist."

And she explained that despite media cynicism towards the efforts of celebrities, there are stars who have made long-term commitments and stuck to them.

"You keep it going at the level of politics, even when it falls out of the media," she said.

"Bono's still working to raise the profile of the situation in sub-Saharan countries in Africa, particularly to do with Aids, even though it's no longer on the front pages of the newspapers."