Priyanka Chopra has a fairly crowded awards shelf containing, among other honours, her second People's Choice award in the Favourite TV Drama Actress category, bagged this year for her performance as CIA agent Alex Parrish in the hit American TV series 'Quantico'. But we have a feeling she will be a tad extra sentimental about the one that has just come her way - the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice.
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The Mother Teresa Memorial International Awards for Social Justice aims to felicitate selfless and intrepid individuals who have channelled all of their energies and creativity to further the aims of social justice to encourage society to imbibe these virtues of peace. Priyanka was deemed the right choice for this honour, for her contribution towards lending her support to social causes, such as her recent visit to Syria, where she met and interacted with refugee children. The actor is also UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador and actively supports the organisation’s various philanthropic activities.
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Priyanka is away shooting in the US, but the award was collected on her behalf, by her mother, Dr Madhu Chopra. Speaking about it, Dr Chopra told a leading daily, “As a mother, I am very proud to have a child who is so compassionate and kind. She exemplifies the fact that the more you give, the more you get. Even as a child, she was influenced by Mother Teresa and has been supporting Prem Niwas in Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh). It is justifiable for her to receive this award and I am immensely proud of her. I’m thankful and I’m sure she is humbled that her efforts have been recognised by the foundation, which believes in helping the needy, supporting the deprived and raising funds for the impoverished.”
Speaking about her work as Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, Priyanka had shared, “The way I look at it it’s not charity, it’s my social responsibility. I have been given so much, it’s my social responsibility to do something. I hear [the sexually abused victims’] stories, people that have been forgotten. I went to these places to see what effect organizations like Unicef are having. I saw volunteers who didn’t need to do this, volunteer time and money. [The victims] need clothes, shoes. … I just feel like when it’s important you make time. Don’t take it from me, experience it yourself, have social awareness. We live in privileged society.”
Like we said, a well-deserved honour.
