Tennis star Maria Sharapova poses with UNDP Associate Administrator Ad Melkert (L) after donating 100,000 U.S. dollars to Chernobyl recovery projects and becomes a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme, during a press conference, at the United Nations, in New York, Feb. 14, 2007. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

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    WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Russian-born tennis star Maria Sharapova became a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Development Program on Wednesday.

    The 19-year-old world number one will be paid a symbolic salary of one US dollar per year for her two-year term and the Grand Slam winner donated 100,000 US dollars to aid recovery from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster which touched her family.

    Her money will go to eight U.N. development projects in rural communities in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine directed at youths suffering from the effects of the nuclear accident. The projects include sports and computer facilities and hospitals.

    Sharapova's mother was living in Gomel in Belarus, about 128 kilometers north of Chernobyl, when a reactor at the electricity-generating plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, exploded during a pre-dawn test on April 26, 1987.

    The radioactivity leak contaminated 97,683 square kilometers and her mother and father were forced to flee. Sharapova was born in April, 1987 in Siberia.

    Gomel was one of the areas most affected by radiation. Sharapova said she still has family in Gomel, including a grandmother.