Hollywood actress and philanthropist Eva Longoria may be best known for her role as the posh, self-obsessed but lovable housewife Gabrielle Solis in the hit TV series Desperate Housewives, but on Sunday she was keen to remind people that both she and the Dubai International Film Festival are involved in much more.
The diminutive star had charity and doing greater good on her mind ahead of her gala on Sunday night.
“We are very excited to be here. Many people think of Diff as just glitz and glamour. But it pleases me to see that there’s a philanthropic arm to it. All eyes are on Dubai this week because of its star status but the real stars are these programmes,” said Longoria at a press conference. The actress, 39, is in town for the The Global Gift Gala fundraiser, a joint initiative by Dubai Cares, the Eva Longoria Foundation and Sunrise K Foundation, to be held at White Dubai at Meydan.
“This is the fifth country that we are in. We were in London, Spain, France and Mexico and it was interesting to see that the common denominators of poverty is access to education … It is extremely hard to find partners who are like-minded. That’s the great thing about the gift gala,” said Longoria. The funds raised at the event will go towards helping women and children in need.
Being an activist and philanthropist came naturally to this actress since she was born into a large family filled with strong women with a charitable bend of mind.
“My older sister was mentally disabled and when you see something like that first hand, you become selfless… Volunteerism is [one of] the first few words I learnt and it’s a part of my DNA. We benefitted a lot from community programmes by churches. It changed my family’s life. So I feel this great responsibility to pay it forward.” Even her artistic expressions — her latest documentary Food Chains, which she co-produced — is an attempt at bringing attention to labour violations.
“It’s my second documentary on farm workers. The first one was on child farm workers. We used this documentary as a political tool to create labour protection reforms. Secondly, I wanted Americans to know that this [labour violations] is happening in America, their backyard. They often think such labour violations happen in China or Ivory Coast… As a consumer, we are a part of the exploitation. We as consumers should know where our food is coming from and whether they are being treated fairly,” said Longoria.
She was equally vocal about her support for the US president Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. On November 20, Obama announced he will provide protection from deportation and work permits to up to five million immigrants.
But 17 states in the US, including Longoria’s native Texas, have filed a lawsuit against the initiative.
“Immigration reform is a global problem with industries being dependant on immigrant labour… I fully support the President’s immigration reforms trying to find relief and a stable economy… People have to understand the history of immigration to really understand the economic paradigms of reform,” said Longoria.
While she’s game to lend a helping hand to any good cause, Longoria says that her foundation is cautious when it comes to expanding its reach. Asked if she would consider travelling to Lebanon, she said: “I would love to go to Beirut. There have been so many countries like Turkey and Lebanon with so many needs who have reached out to us. We launched in Mexico last year. It’s a beautiful country with many positives but it has problems. But we don’t like to bite off more than we can chew,” said Longoria.
“But we want to change the world one step at a time.”
Her sentiment was echoed by Maria Bravo and Alina Peralta, founders of Global Gift Gala, and Joanna Dogmoch of Sunrise K Foundation, who are working towards raising awareness about glaucoma, a debilitating eye disease that can lead to blindness.
“You think it’s easy to find like-minded people. But it’s often tough and I am glad that I am here today,” said Longoria.
