Jacqueline's grand gesture!

Known for her humanitarian works, Bollywood star Jacqueline 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 here and participated in the construction process, along with the local community and over 300 volunteers, who had assembled from across India.

In an interview with DC, she opens about her campaign ‘Jacqueline Builds’, and her interest to 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 the project ‘Jacqueline 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 successful initiative,” adds the actress.

From leveraging the social media platform to raise awareness about the initiative, to meeting the contributors for motivating them further, Jacqueline went all out to gather support. “This is just a beginning of what we can achieve — housing and shelter is a very important initiative for me,” she says adding, “Hrithik Roshan has been really generous by sponsoring an entire house for a family. Many other actors have contributed and supported in their own way — they’ve tweeted and created awareness.”

Jacqueline also met the affected families and interacted with them, giving them strength and a new hope for a better future. So, how does she balance 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 effort to do some work and this is my first project so far. I’m planning to engage in three more similar projects,” says Jacqueline, who is also a part of UN Global Goals campaign.

“I wanted to explore the city, but I couldn’t this time. Having said that, Besant Nagar is definitely on my itinerary!” she says, adding that she is open to act 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.”