On World AIDS Day, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy—wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy—signed on to become a goodwill ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The Associated Press reports.

“I think the world has become used to AIDS,” Bruni-Sarkozy told a news conference in Paris. “We no longer see it as a scandal or an emergency.”

According to the article, the model-turned-singer hopes her work with the Global Fund will divert the media attention she has attracted since her February 2008 marriage to President Sarkozy toward the fight against AIDS. She’ll focus closely on women and children living with the virus as well as the stigma surrounding HIV.

“There is no greater cruelty than to be excluded from your own family and your own community because you are infected with a deadly disease,” said Bruni-Sarkozy, whose brother Virginio died of AIDS-related illness in 2006.