Farhan Akhtar at the announcement event.

Farhan Akhtar becomes UN Women’s first ever goodwill ambassador

by  Dharm Patel Marketing | November 17, 2014 | News

Cream Events United Nations Farhan Akhtar

UN Women, the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment, announced the appointment of actor-filmmaker-singer, Farhan Akhtar, as the South Asia Goodwill Ambassador. Cream Events was the agency that came on board to design and execute the announcement event which took place at Bungalow 9 in Mumbai on Nov. 13.

Akhtar is the first man to be chosen as the Goodwill Ambassador in the organization’s history. He was chosen since he has represented the voice of numerous concerned men on the important issue of gender equality and violence against women and girls in India through his MARD (Men Against Rape & Discrimination) campaign. The panel discussion that took place at the event was insightful, pushing people to be a part of this global initiative.

Akhtar will dedicate his efforts as ambassador towards the empowerment of women and girls and will serve as an advocate for UN Women’s newly launched HeForShe initiative in advocating for gender equality and women’s empowerment. The MARD campaign has successfully encouraged many actors to join this campaign and spread awareness, with corporates like Google also engaging with the campaign to empower women with internet literacy.

Speaking on the occasion, Akhtar said: “I am honoured to serve UN Women as the Goodwill Ambassador for South Asia. This gives me along with our MARD initiative an added impetus to work together towards a more gender equal India and world. I am a supporter of UN Women’s HeForShe campaign and the role that men and boys can play in stopping crime against women and working towards gender equality. Through this new partnership I want to call on all the men and boys to be a catalyst for change and through our actions create a value system to end gender disparity.”

Commenting on the event, Gouri Balachandran, Head – Marketing and Client Servicing, Cream Events, said: “This was a very special event to work on because of the cause UN Women was working towards. Cream took care of everything right from the branding to the stage design to Farhan’s movement. It was indeed a pleasure to work with the international team of UN Women.”