Alia, Kareena and more come together for Priyanka-Freida’s 'Girl Rising'
The feature film will air on national television on August 29th
Washington: USAID chief Alfonso Lenhardt is visiting India this week to attend a global conference of health ministers and practitioners on child and maternal deaths and launch the premiere of a film on girl's education.
Kicking off his India travel from Mumbai, the acting administrator of US Agency for International Development will launch the premiere of the film on girl's education, "Girl Rising: Woh Padhegi, Woh Udegi", and tour a Tata lab as part of the agency's focus on innovation, an official statement said today.
The campaign has roped in several Bollywood figures including Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, Parineeti Chopra, Sushmita Sen, Madhuri Dixit, and is produced by Priyanka and Freida Pinto.
The Hindi dubbed version of the feature film will premieres on national television on August 29th on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. The film has been made in collaboration with the government’s ‘Beti Bachao Beti padhao’ campaign and Star TV.
"Woh Padegi, Woh Udegi... it's what I've truly believed in and it's a motto shared by every one of the amazing women who have joined me on this journey for Girl Rising. We've all come together to narrate real life stories that highlight the amazing, positive impact that education can have on young girls. We believe that storytelling is a powerful way to inspire people and also to empower them to take action," said Priyanka.
Frieda said that "there couldn't be a more appropriate day to bring to every Indian a movement that is so crucial in changing the way we perceive the role of girls and raise our boys in our country.
"As a producer of Girl Rising India, I was very honoured to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June to talk about Girl Rising and he not only embraced the idea but also suggested that we launch it on Raksha Bandhan," she added.
In New Delhi, Lenhardt will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Third Global Call to Action Summit 2015, a conference of health ministers, practitioners and global leaders to share best practices and reaffirm their commitment for ending preventable child and maternal deaths.
The second annual Acting on the Call Report will be released at the summit.
The report is a status update on the first report, which detailed how USAID will join partners to save 15 million children and 600,000 women by 2020.
'Girl Rising: Woh Padhegi, Woh Udegi' is a film by Academy Award nominee Richard E Robbins.
It is the centre piece a USAID public-private partnership, Girl Rising; ENGAGE, an international campaign for girls' education and empowerment that uses the power of storytelling to ignite people to take action.
From India, Lenhardt will travel to Bangladesh where he will visit several USAID field projects near Bagherat that are advancing Presidential Initiatives in health and climate change. He will also meet several government officials in Dhaka.