Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor appointed UNICEF ambassador from India

Kapoor is India’s national ambassador for UNICEF and joins the likes of Priyanka Chopra

UNICEF India on Saturday announced Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor Khan as its new National Ambassador, prompting actress Priyanka Chopra to congratulate Kareena on Instagram.

“Welcome to the family @KareenaKapoorKhan. Very well deserved,” Chopra wrote.

Kapoor re-shared Priyanka’s story and wrote, “Thank you PCJ. See you soon.”

Priyanka has been associated with UNICEF since 2006 and was named the national and global Unicef Goodwill Ambassador for Child Rights in 2010 and 2016, respectively.

Kareena has been associated with UNICEF India since 2014 and has worked on issues such as girls’ education, gender equality, foundational learning, immunisation and breastfeeding.

On being named UNICEF India’s National Ambassador, Kareena said, “I’m very honoured and very humbled to take on this position. I’ve worked tirelessly and worked very hard with all my heart. And now, finally, I’m joining them as a national ambassador. But of course, with that comes a huge responsibility which I accept with all my heart to ensure that every child through the corners of India, however vulnerable, wherever he is, whoever she is … I must include when I say every single child, I do not specify gender, I do not want to, voice or no voice, abled or disabled … I specify every single child I will work towards to give them their fundamental right …,” she said.

“Every child deserves a fair chance to life, the first five years of their life being their foundation. Every child deserves a childhood, the first five years, once again I repeat, being the most important and formative years. They deserve a right — a right to safety, a right to gender equality, a right to education, primary education, safe environments, health and nutrition. They basically deserve a fair chance at life itself,” she added.

The ‘Crew’ star emphasised the need to develop the child’s confidence so that they can innovate new ideas and dream big in life.

“And nurturing their confidence. Because confidence gives them the ability to dream, ability to fly, ability to have ideas, to innovate, which they need because children are, they are the future. They are the future of our nation. So to have that, we must build their confidence. So that is also a fundamental right, which we have to do,” she said.

On the movie front, Kapoor is currently basking in the success of ‘Crew’, in which she shared screen space with Kriti Sanon and Tabu.

Helmed by Rajesh A Krishnan, ‘Crew’ revolves around the journey of three working women set against the backdrop of the aviation industry.

The film also stars Diljit Dosanjh, Kapil Sharma, Saswata Chatterjee, Rajesh Sharma and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

In the coming months, she will be seen headlining Hansal Mehta’s ‘The Buckingham Murders’. She also has Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Again’ in her kitty.