Priyanka Chopra - Philanthropy

Philanthropy

Chopra supports various charities including NDTV's Greenathon, an initiative to support eco-friendliness and look into lack of electricity in rural villages. She featured in an animated video alongside children to support the cause. In February 2005, Chopra participated in the HELP! Telethon Concert to help raise money for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake with other Bollywood actors. In 2006, an auction on eBay India opened bids to help the auction winner spend a day with Chopra. All proceeds from the auction were donated to a NGO called Nanhi Kali which helps to educate the girl children in rural and urban India. In 2007, she visited troops in historic Tenga in eastern India to boost the morale of the Jawan troops for a special episode on the NDTV show, Jai Jawan, celebrating the country's 60th anniversary of independence. In 2009, Chopra shot a documentary for the organization, Alert India, to spread awareness about leprosy. Later, the documentary was presented at a charity dinner which was hosted by Chopra herself.

Chopra often speaks out for women's issues, against female infanticide and feticide, and in support of education for all girls. In 2010, she joined hands with "Wave", a philanthropic organization that works for the cause of women. She was one of several celebrities who created promotional messages in favor of the organisation. She also launched a "Save the Girl child" campaign through which she urged couples not to go in for abortion when they find out that they are soon to become the parents of a baby girl. She was appointed as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 2010, joining Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan and actress Sharmila Tagore for supporting UNICEF’s work regarding children all over the world. She had already been working with UNICEF since 2008. During that time, she has recorded public service announcements and participated in media panel discussions to promote children's rights and education of girls.

In 2012, Chopra appeared with Priya Dutt at the launch of Awakening Youth, a program to make mankind addiction free. She was a hit among the crowds and gave the audience a touching speech about the future of the youth of India. At the start the fourth edition of NDTV's Greenathon, Chopra cleaned the Yamuna river in Agra in a symbolic gesture as part of an initiative to create awareness for environmental issues. She said, "This time we began our campaign from Agra because tourist inflow is maximum here. Taj Mahal is on the bank of river Yamuna, which has become a dumping zone of waste materials now. If we do not protect our environment our future will be dark." Model-actor Milind Soman, politicians, environmental organizations, and school children joined her in the effort. Chopra adopted a tigress named Durga at the Birsa biological park for the year 2011–12, and then a lioness named Sundari for 2012–13 from the same zoo. She sent a sum of 2 lakh (US$3,600) to the zoo authorities for the same. In July 2012, Chopra walked for designer Manish Malhotra and Shaina NC's charity fashion show for NGO Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA) along with other celebrities like Ayushmann Khurrana to spread awareness about cancer. Chopra pledged to donate her organs after death and promote organ donation as the Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. During her father's liver illness treatment at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), she learned about the institution's organ transplant programs. She was invited to be the keynote speaker along with University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Thomas Starzl, M.D., Ph.D., at the university's Bollywood themed 20th anniversary celebration of its Liver Transplant Program in October 2012, held in New York.