DUBAI: UAE-based Lebanese-Australian model and TV presenter Jessica Kahawaty will give a talk on April 21 at TEDxSciencesPo in Paris. The event, according to a press release will bring together influencers “who work toward breaking the wall between the East and the West” and aims to “provide an essential bridge, to fuse the gap between rising trends of neo-conservatism predominant in the South of France and the cultural diversity that characterizes the Arab world.” The theme of this year’s TEDxSciencesPo is “Walls and Shadows.” The organizers say will “reconsider the walls we build within our society and the shadows they consequentially cast.” Kahawaty’s ancestry and diverse work background make her an ideal fit for the conference. She is most famous for her media and modeling careers — placing in several high-profile beauty contests before going on to host entertainment shows for Yahoo Maktoob and, later, “Project Runway Middle East” — but aside from her time in front of the cameras, Kahawaty has studied business, finance and law in Sydney and is a keen supporter of a number of humanitarian causes, including UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR). Last year, fashion house Louis Vuitton selected Kahawaty to work with UNICEF at the Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan to help children affected by the Syrian crisis, which has seen millions of people (including more than 2 million children) displaced. Kahawaty also urged fans to donate a minute of their salaries to end child violence as part of the UNICEF Australia initiative, “A Minute of Your Time.”