NEW DELHI: Actress Priyanka Chopra, who is the UNICEF Global Goodwill Ambassador, took to Twitter and dished out a firm response at trolls mocking her for visiting Syrian refugee children.
A critic named Ravindra Gautam questioned her efforts by tweeting that Priyanka should focus on kids in “rural areas of India where malnourished kids waiting for food”.
I would request @priyankachopra that do visit rural areas of India where malnourished kids waiting for food. #MissionForChildren https://t.co/VTKdrRBUkr
— Ravindra Gautam 🇮🇳 🕉️ (@RavindraGautam_) September 10, 2017
The “Mary Kom” star shut him up for mocking her visit and made her point loud and clear by tweeting back saying, “Ive worked w/ @UNICEFIndia for 12 yrs&visited many such places. What have u done @RavindraGautam_ ?Y is 1 childs prob less imp than another?”
Ive worked w/ @UNICEFIndia for 12 yrs&visited many such places. What have u done @RavindraGautam_ ?Y is 1 childs prob less imp than another? https://t.co/GaxeKyXDrK
— PRIYANKA (@priyankachopra) September 10, 2017
She spends quality time with kids and also shared her feelings via her Insta posts. Her first post where she is teaching the kids, captioned: ” Cultures are so lovely.so different yet so similar. Kalam is arabic for pen and it’s kalam in Urdu/Hindi too. We found that funny. Since the kids were learning English I thought Pencil may be appropriate… #MissionForChildren #ChildrenUprooted #PCInJordan #ChildrenOfSyria @unicef.”
The Bollywood and Hollywood star with a light gray scarf slung over her hair, at the end of her first day visit at the UNICEF-backed children’s center in Jordan’s capital of Amman told The Associated Press:
“We need to take it into our own hands because this is our world and we only have one of it.”
“I think the world needs to understand that this is not just a Syrian refugee crisis, it’s a humanitarian crisis,” she said.
“This can be an entire generation of kids that could turn to extremism because they have not gotten an education,” she said.
Moved by the hopefulness of the children she met, the 35-yr-old “Quantico” star later said.
“Some of them want professional careers, some of them want to go back to their countries and rebuild,” she said. “Parents … want that for their children.”
Disturbed by the unfortunate events in Syria, the Bajirao Mastani actress wrote, “I have never done this when I do field trips, but on this one I feel compelled to reflect on what I feel after every session because I felt a lot.
The anger and agony I felt seeing these beautiful hopeful children ravaged by war was so raw. The world has seen the pain war has left in Syria but the resilience and joy and hope in spite of it is so inspiring to me. These kids are my inspiration. They should be yours too.”
On the acting front, Priyanka now has in her kitty big projects like “Isnt It Romantic?” with Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine, and “A Kid Like Jake” starring Jim Parsons, Claire Danes, Octavia Spencer, Ann Dowd and Michaela Watkins.
Children living in the world’s poorest countries and in conflict zones are disproportionally affected. Of the 123 million children missing out on school, 40 percent live in the least developed countries and 20 percent live in conflict zones, said Unicef.
The conflicts in Iraq and Syria have resulted in an additional 3.4 million children missing out on education, bringing the number of out-of-school children across the Middle East and North Africa back to 2007’s level of approximately 16 million.