Priyanka Chopra receives UNICEF's Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award

Priyanka Chopra has been honoured with UNICEF's Danny Kaye Humanitarian Award. The India star was named the 2019 recipient of the Humanitarian Award by the United Nations Children's Fund in June this year and received the award at the Snowflake Ball here Tuesday night.

"Giving back is no longer a choice. Giving back has to be a way of life," Priyanka said after accepting the award named after Danny Kaye, an American actor, and philanthropist who was UNICEF's first Goodwill Ambassador. Veteran fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg handed over the award to the 37-year-old actor.

Priyanka, who has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for more than a decade, also opened up about her journey with the organization. "I had just become an actor and I was figuring out that I had this platform. I had started associating with causes that I believed were important. I was working with thalassemic children, children's wards and suddenly I realised that there was a theme – that I was working with a lot of kids. My then manager Natasha Pal told me that there is this organization called UNICEF and maybe I should volunteer.

"I started reading up a lot more and I started volunteering my time. A couple of years later, I became a national ambassador in India and then two years ago, I became a global ambassador for UNICEF. The journey has been now 13 years," she told UNICEF USA.