Priyanka Chopra gets emotional meeting UP girls battling poverty to get education, says ‘they are so inspiring’
Priyanka Chopra is currently back in India after a gap of almost three years. Her trip has been part-work, where she launched a line of her hair care products in Mumbai.
The second leg of the trip has been as the actor’s role as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She visited rural Uttar Pradesh meeting children fighting poverty and lack of education. On Wednesday, she shared a video of one such interaction, where she was seen getting quite emotional hearing the kids’ testimonies.
The video began with a montage of Priyanka consoling one of the girls during their interactions followed by her clicking pictures with the kids. The video had young girls recounting to the actor about how they were denied education early on and had to fight not only the society but in some cases, their own family members to go to school. Upon hearing one story of a girl who was being pressurised to get married in her early teens, Priyanka got visibly emotional.
Captioning the video, Priyanka wrote a long note about her experience. “As you all know I’m a passionate believer in the power of education but what I’ve seen here takes it to the next level,” she wrote, adding, “One of the groups of teenagers I met didn’t get the opportunity to start their education when one is supposed to, only because they were girls. But their perseverance paid off and at the age of 12 and 14 they’re now learning how to read and write through the UNICEF supported initiative, Adolescent Development and Empowerment (ADE) which focuses on 10,000 such girls in the state. These two girls are financially supporting their families by working as domestic workers before and after school, yet their zeal to learn is incredible.”
Touching upon how the girls’ strength and determination inspired her, Priyanka further wrote, “These teenagers, especially the girls, are so inspiring. The situations they have dealt with in their young lives are so impossible to digest, but they picked themselves up and fought to remove themselves from the cycle of poverty and abuse that they are in. I also saw the power of a sisterhood, in this case the Shakti Group where groups of girls come together and become the strong support system that they need to grow and thrive.”
Fans will see Priyanka in several projects next, including Farhan Akhtar’s upcoming film Jee Le Zaraa with Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt. She also has the series Citadel, which is produced by director-duo Anthony Russo and Joe Russo. Priyanka will also be seen in the Hollywood film Love Again.