Priyanka Chopra serves as the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, which is why she went to Ethiopia straight after the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.
Priyanka is in Ethiopia to emphasize the importance of UNICEF’s education programme.
“I am in Ethiopia for a specific reason. I want to highlight Unicef’s education programme when it comes to children and youth in the country,” says Priyanka. “There is a huge barrier when it comes to access to education for children, especially because there are so many dropouts in school which begin as soon as kids start school. The primary education goes from Standard 1 to Standard 8, that is primary education. Secondary education is after that, we see dropouts of children even from first grade, so 50 per-cent of kids in Ethiopia end up dropping out.”
While in Ethiopia, Priyanka met with The Gender Club. This is a programme supported by UNICEF, which empowers both girls and boys. The organisation provides its students with knowledge and skills to help them deal with harmful social practices – violence based on their gender, child marriage and sexual abuse.
Priyanka also met with the first female President of Ethiopia – Sahle-Work Zewde. She praised the Madam President saying “She has a global perspective for the development of her country – Ethiopia is the second largest host country of refugees in Africa, they’ve taken in just under 1M. She’s pushing for policies that provide people with access to education and other essential needs so they can improve their familial economic situation and hence the economy of Ethiopia. I’m so inspired.”
View some images posted by Priyanka on her social media accounts below.
[Source: Priyanka Chopra’s Twitter]