Bollywood stars to walk for Shabana`s Mijwan

Mumbai: Bollywood celebrities like Deepika Padukone, Karan Johar and Imran Khan will lend support to Shabana Azmi`s Mijwan Welfare Society (MWS) by wearing clothes made by the NGO`s girls at an upcoming fashion event.

MWS works for the empowerment of the girl child in rural India, and will hold the Mijwan Sonnets In Fabric for the third consecutive year. It will be held at the Grand Hyatt here Sep 3. "This year is particularly significant because it is the culmination of a process started three years ago when we first started our partnership with Manish Malhotra. "Like the two previous years, Bollywood stars will walk the ramp for Manish Malhotra. But this year they will showcase the craftsmanship of our girls from Mijwan. It is a huge boost for them to be pulled out of oblivion and have 23 reigning stars of Bollywood wear their creations," Shabana said in a statement. "I`m overwhelmed by the support we have received from the film, fashion and sports fraternity, who have come forward once again to walk the ramp at this very special event," she added. Among the confirmed names to be present at the event are Amy Jackson, Arjun Kapoor, Chiraag Paswan, Chitrangada Singh, Dia Mirza, Imtiaz Ali, Kalki Koechlin, Kunal Kapoor, Malaika Arora Khan, Neha Dhupia, Parineeti Chopra, Prateik, Rohit Roy, Rohit Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Shahana Goswami,Shahzanne Padamsee and Yuvraj Singh. "There are a couple of surprises too but let`s hold on to the suspense! Wait and watch," said Shabana. The 61-year-old, who associates herself with various social causes, is making more efforts to improve the quality of education for the MWS girls. She said the girls "are learning English through Skype from US under the auspices of the Ann Foundation. We propose to expand this programe further to start a full-fledged Diploma course. "Processes are underway to start a technical institute so Mijwan becomes the centre around which a lot of satellite villages and small towns can learn skills that will generate employment." IANS