MISS UNIVERSE® 2000
and UNFPA GOODWILL AMBASSADOR
TAKES ACTION IN HER HOME COUNTRY OF INDIA

Lara Dutta, the current Miss Universe and a Goodwill Ambassador for UNFPA, visited her home country, India, from January 22-25 as part of the Face to Face Campaign for Women. She spent three days visiting UNFPA and NGO project sites in Calcutta and Bombay. The fourth day was devoted to a live WebCast and Chat On-Line sponsored by the Times of India and UNFPA face to face Campaign, where she answered questions on reproductive health, family planning, love and dating, education and peer and parent relationships, among others, posed by a group of young women and men from Bombay.

Lara began her India visit with a two day stay in Calcutta. On January 22, she visited an innovative project for youth and young women and men in the small village of Kockpukur, some 20 kilometers south of Calcutta in a rice growing region. Here Lara was able to talk at length to young women from the Kishori Bahini (adolescent girls’ brigade) and also to leaders of the local Mahila Mandal (women’s development groups), set up with assistance from Family Planning International Assistance, the service division of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The funds were used to establish the NISHTHA project – Improving the Reproductive Health of Young Women and Men.

One of the dynamic young women that Lara met was Jogomaya Manna, a 25 year old member of the Mahila Mandal in Kockpukur village. Jogomaya has been an active member for 12 years, when she joined the adolescent brigade. It has been an uphill struggle for her and other members of the group.

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