Jaqueline Fernandez is helping rebuild lives of flood victims in Chennai through her campaign ‘Jaqueline Builds’. The actress opens up about her initiative.
Known for her humanitarian work, Bollywood star Jaqueline Fernandez has geared up for another initiative. She has joined hands with Habitat for Humanity India, a global non-profit organisation, to build houses for the flood affected families in Chennai. Despite her busy schedule, the actress found time and flew down to the city for a day. She visited Padappai village there and participated in the house building process, along with the local community and over 300 volunteers from across India.
She opens up about her campaign, ‘Jaqueline Builds’, and her interest in acting in South Indian films. The svelte beauty, who has been instrumental in spreading awareness and raising funds for the relief work says, “Being affiliated with Habitat for Humanity for five years has helped me to create this project ‘Jaqueline Builds’, and for the past two-and-a-half months, we have been working to help rehabilitate flood victims of TN. We’ve got fantastic response from donors and volunteers and it’s been a really successful initiative,” adds the actress.
From leveraging social media platforms to raise awareness about the initiative to meeting the contributors for motivating them further, Jacqueline went all out to gather support. “This is just the beginning of what we can achieve — housing and shelter is a very important initiative for me,” says the actress. She adds, “Hrithik Roshan has been really generous by sponsoring an entire house for a family. And many other actors have contributed and supported in their own ways — they’ve tweeted and created awareness.”
Jacqueline also met the affected families and interacted with them, giving them strength and new hope for a better future ahead.
So, how does she balance her acting and humanitarian work “It is not easy to balance time in any field you are in. Usually people don’t consider charitable work as an essential or important thing to do. However, this year I’ve consciously made efforts to do some work and this is my first project of the year. I’m planning to do three more similar projects,” says the actress, who is also a part of the UN Global Goals campaign.
“I wanted to explore the city of Chennai too, but I couldn’t do that this time. Having said that, Besant Nagar is definitely there in my itinerary list!” she says, adding that she is open to acting in South Indian films. “I just watched 3 and was floored by Dhanush and Shruthi Haasan’s acting. I love Rajinikanth and Nayanthara too — they’re versatile and natural.”
