“Educating girls and young women is not only one of the biggest moral challenges of our country, it is also a necessary investment for a peaceful and poverty-free world,” said Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi. He was in the Capital recently to support the “Support Her Education (SHE)”, one-year campaign launched by The Body Shop in association with Food for Life Vrindavan (FFLV), which aims at educating 100 girls in need. The actor is endorsing this philanthropic campaign.
SHE is an endeavour to highlight girls’ education as one of the crucial and sensitive issues of today. On an average, women receive 1.8 years of schooling in India and 53 per cent of girls in the age group of five to nine years are illiterate. The campaign aims to raise funds, through more than 100 stores of The Body Shop India, to support the education, food and healthcare of 100 underprivileged girls. “We hope to inspire long term change as we firmly believe that business should be about responsibility and public good…This campaign is also very special as this is the first time we are executing an India-specific campaign to help local communities in need,” said Shriti Malhotra, Chief Operating Officer, The Body Shop India.
Vivek oberoi said, “I feel privileged to be associated with this campaign and I’m thrilled to partner with an ethical and socially conscious brand such as The Body Shop,” adding that “girls are the hope of tomorrow, even in some respect they are superior to boys. And it is our moral duty to provide them good education for tomorrow.” The cine star also said “We have 365 days in a year to celebrate woman’s day and each day should be woman’s day.”
The actor also took questions about his acting career. When asked why he has been more successful in multi-starrer movies as compared to solo projects, Vivek said, “No one asks whether Brad Pitt or Robert Pattinson or Leonardo is doing solo or multi starrer in Hollywood, but in Bollywood why such questions are asked, I don’t know. The fact of the matter is that I am doing my best whether it is solo or multi starrer film.”
