John Abraham

	Pooja Bedi

Help from Friends
Indian celebrities Pooja Bedi and John Abraham lend a hand to Habitat for Humanity

by Jennifer Lindsey, Wong Hiew Peng, Allison Winkler

Mention Pooja Bedi in India and images come to mind of a celebrity television talk-show host, columnist, writer and actress. The daughter of a famous filmmaker and a classical dancer, Bedi is a well-known figure in Indian pop culture. But she is as comfortable wielding a hammer and laying bricks as she is commanding attention on the Indian TV screen. Bedi is a dedicated Habitat for Humanity volunteer in India--and she's not the only one with a high profile. Indian cinema superstar John Abraham also actively supports indiaBUILDS.

Bedi partners with Habitat through a program called "Just Build With Pooja," a nod to her talk show Just Pooja on India's lifestyle channel Zoom TV. "Just Build With Pooja" is a special program under the Maharashtra Flood Response Initiative, a collaboration between Habitat and Jankalyan Trust to build at least 1,000 houses with families affected by the July 2005 torrential floods and landslides in the state of Maharashtra and its capital city, Mumbai. To date, Bedi has been involved in four builds at the Kondivite village in Mahad town, about 120 miles from Mumbai.

At the same time, Abraham, one of India's top actors and a well-known youth icon, encourages Indian residents and non-resident Indians alike to support Habitat's indiaBUILDS campaign through a public awareness and volunteer program titled "John's Brigade." Abraham stars in a series of public service announcements asking his fans and supporters to join John's Brigade by volunteering their time to build homes and lending their financial support to indiaBUILDS' considerable goals. Aiming to mobilize the actor's target audience, Abraham's broadcast and print announcements are distributed in India and North America.

"I believe to be happy in life you need a home," says Abraham. "You need to go back to something. You need to go back to those four walls which belong to you, which you belong to. We have more than 300 million people in India who lack proper shelter. Habitat for Humanity has come in at the right time and is going to help us build a lot more homes for a lot more people."

To that end, members of John's Brigade were among the more than 2,000 volunteers participating in the 2006 Jimmy Carter Work Project in Lonavala in October. Prior to the event, Bedi approached various sponsors, requesting donations of construction materials and speaking to heads of various companies about sponsoring hundreds of volunteers.

Both celebrities see their Habitat involvement stretching into the future. Bedi is keen to adopt another community after her Mahad project is completed and doesn't rule out support for other regions in India or other parts of the world. "Poverty has no language, no religious, spiritual or geographical boundaries," she says.

Like Abraham, Bedi wants to cultivate an enjoyment of volunteerism in the younger generation. Both of her children--Aaleya, 8, and Omar, 6--have visited Habitat build sites with her. "I believe that all children should be taught to share and care from a very young age," she says. "And the only way to teach is by example. I want to ingrain in them a deep social conscience and make it a way of life for them."

In Bedi's opinion, volunteerism begins with the desire to see change. "I truly believe it's about wanting to," she says. "We can choose to find a hundred excuses why we can't do something and a hundred ways of getting it done. The choice lies with us."