Bollywood
actress
Kajol
says
she
had
a
memorable
stint
at
the
United
Nations
where
her
campaign
'Help
A
Child
Reach
5'
was
appreciated
by
the
dignitaries.
The
40-year-old
actress,
who
was
on
her
second
visit
to
UN
General
Assembly
summit,
said
the
response
was
phenomenal
this
year
more
people
chose
to
talk
about
the
importance
of
hand
washing.
"The
response
was
fabulous.
I
came
here
last
year
as
well
and
this
year
even
more
people
were
talking
about
it,
coming
up
to
you
and
appreciating
the
initiative.
We
got
a
way
more
attention
than
what
we
expected," Kajol
told
PTI
over
phone
from
New
York.
The
newly
launched
Lifebuoy's
Handwash
campaign,
fronted
by
Kajol,
aims
at
eradicating
preventable
deaths
like
diarrhoea
by
propagating
lifesaving
hand
washing
habits.
"The
great
part
is
that
handwashing
is
the
basic
thing.
It's
is
the
first
step.
You
had
everybody
talking
about
communicable
disease
and
they
all
understand
the
importance
of
it.
More
than
40
per
cent
of
children
at
the
age
group
of
zero
to
two
are
more
vulnerable
to
diseases," she
said.
The
mother
of
two
had
also
joined
micro-blogging
site
Twitter
to
promote
the
cause
as
she
feels
social
media
is
important
to
push
things.
"The
cause
is
getting
requisite
attention
through
social
media.
It
is
reaching
out
to
a
lot
more
people.
I
do
think
that
Twitter
has
made
a
huge
difference
today.
It's
a
faster
and
digital
version
of
newspaper," she
said.
During
her
three-day
visit,
Kajol
met
many
dignitaries
around
the
globe
including
UN
Secretary
General's
wife
Yoo
Soon-taek,
First
Lady
of
Gabon
Sylvia
Bongo
Ondimba,
Unilever
CEO'S
Paul
Polman
wife
Kim
and
actresses
Lily
Cole
and
Amy
Smart.
"Yoo
Soon-taek
was
wonderful
and
so
was
Polman's
wife.
They
all
are
actually
fantastic
about
it.
Everybody
agreed
to
stand
there
and
talk
about
it.
We
wanted
to
basically
tell
all
the
first
ladies
to
scale
up
handwashing
in
their
particular
countries," she
said.
PTI