JOHANNESBURG: Actress Priyanka Chopra said today that Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela have both had a great influence in her life because of their compassion for children.
Speaking at the end of a fleeting visit to Johannesburg and neighbouring Zimbabwe, Priyanka said she feels both Mandela and Gandhi bring South Africa and India together and “we’ll always be together because of that relationship.”
“Both these great men stood for the rights of children and talked about how children were the foundation of our society, and our society can never get better if we ignore our children,” the actress told reporters.
“Their learnings are always examples not just to me, but to the children of both our countries’ and to all of us,” she said.
“Not only because I share my birthday with Madiba (Mandela’s clan name used as a term of endearment), which I do feel I am very special about and I do show off about a little, but also because of the man that he was and what he stood for,” said the 34-year-old actress.
Chopra was the chief guest as UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador at the first fundraiser in Johannesburg last night, helping raise 600,000 rands for projects to curb child abuse. (AGENCIES)
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