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"  After spending more than a decade taking over the fashion world\u2014she&amp;#039;s graced more covers, catwalks, and ad campaigns than we could count\u2014Liya Kebede has now focused her efforts on tackling maternal health issues. In 2007 she started the Liya Kebede Foundation to raise awareness and help reduce maternal and newborn fatality in her native Ethiopia and beyond. This spring David Yurman partnered with the model, and launched a special love pave-diamond bracelet for Mother&amp;#039;s Day\u2014donating proceeds to Kebede&amp;#039;s foundation. We chatted with the supermodel about her amazing philanthropic efforts, family values and her current TV obsession. Harper&amp;#039;s Bazaar: Why did you decide to partner with David Yurman? Liya Kebede: I think David Yurman has always been focused on women-related causes, which is really nice. They had this idea to do something for Mother&amp;#039;s Day and for me Mother&amp;#039;s Day is important because a) I am a mother and b) because this is a cause that I&amp;#039;ve been working on with my foundation since 2007. In places like Africa one of the major killers of women is child birth and pregnancy and it happens because they have no access to basic healthcare. There are no facilities, there are no doctors, so they die from things that are totally preventable or treatable. I think around 800 women die a day because of pregnancy and childbirth complications which is really sad. The whole idea was to collaborate with David Yurman on something wonderful, a gift to give to your mom but also to celebrate other mothers and to sort of contribute to saving other mothers around the world. HB: How did your Liya Kebede Foundation come about? LK: Well actually, I started out as the spokesperson for WHO (World Health Organization) so I did that for a while and after that I started my own foundation. It happened because with the WHO I was doing more awareness raising, doing all of these things and every time I would get the question, &amp;quot;What can I do to help?&amp;quot; So I decided that maybe I needed to start a foundation that could help connect those two and that&amp;#039;s how it all began. HB: What advice would you give to someone who wants to start an organization of their own? LK: Start. Just do it. But first I think you should really research your cause, see if there are other people who are already doing the same thing you&amp;#039;re doing and try to join forces because I really feel like collaborating is really important and very efficient. More is more, you know? HB: What&amp;#039;s the best advice or lesson you&amp;#039;ve learned from your mother? LK: The best lesson that I&amp;#039;ve learned from her is that she just never accepted no for an answer and I think that&amp;#039;s something that has stayed with me. HB: What&amp;#039;s an important lesson or value you&amp;#039;re passing on to your children? LK: They&amp;#039;re still young, but I try to talk to them about giving back and how important it is, just to look at the world, be invested in things, to be passionate about things, to have a dream. HB: Obviously you&amp;#039;re very busy with modeling, your Lem Lem clothing line, family, the foundation, what do you like to do in your downtime? LK: I read a lot and I watch a lot of films and TV. I just finished, but I&amp;#039;m absolutely obsessed with House of Cards, I just like to sit and watch one episode after the other. Liya Kebede wears the David Yurman Petit Pave Love ID Bracelet, $895, davidyurman.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/models/a2315/liya-kebede-david-yurman/>