Why Priyanka Chopra cried after visiting Syrian refugee camp

Indian actress Priyanka Chopra at the Global Education and Skills Forum at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai.-Photo by Dhes Handumon/Khaleej Times

Students should work with humanitarian organisations to stay grounded and be motivated to help others, according to Priyanka Chopra, an Indian actor and Unicef Goodwill Ambassador.
On Sunday, Chopra was addressing the audience of the Global Education and Skills Forum, where she spoke on topics ranging from feminism, her experience in the film industry and carrying out humanitarian causes.
She shared an instance of where she was "in tears" after seeing kids at a Syrian refugee camp. "The privilege of being able to work with Unicef is great," she said. "Sometimes I think if everything was stolen from me; if I was displaced from war, lived under a tent and was not able to send my kids to school, I would be angry with the world.
"So many children around the world, all they wanted were books. All they wanted was teachers and some kind of grip on their future. Each child that I met spoke about going back to rebuild their country, they were not even angry at their country. And that for me was incredible."
She said that a day after visiting the Syrian refugee camp in Jordan, she had to attend the Emmys. However, she couldn't shake off the memory of the tragic lives that the children were living.
"I was wearing about 50 carats of diamonds for the Emmys and I suddenly had tears in my eyes. I thought how can people survive that. As a human being it shook me to my core," she said.
Chopra hopes to make a trip to the Rohingya refugee camps soon. She also insisted that people do not get desensitised to what is happening to refugees and that they stuck in volatile situations around the world.
"I think around the world, have we become desensitised about this? We read about children washing up shores, dead children, we hear about shootings in the US and genocides. My thoughts are that can we ignore what's happening? Can we feel that this is wrong? Can global society make enough noise to tackle this? Leadership needs to change its gaze. Governments need to understand that this is a global humanitarian crisis, not regional," she added.
This was the second day that Chopra was speaking at the forum, which brought together thousands of educators, world leaders and decision makers.
On her first day at the forum, Chopra spoke out what makes a student a global citizen and her experience as a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador.
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com