Mumbai: Madame Valerie Trierweiler, the unofficial first lady of France till President Francois Hollande announced he had "ended their shared life" earlier on Saturday in Paris before her departure for India, arrived in Mumbai on Sunday night on a charity trip with the mission of opening an NGO called Fight Hunger Foundation. She was France's unofficial first lady for nineteen months. Ms Trierweiler, 48, a prominent Paris journalist before meeting Hollande, 59, addressed a news conference at Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba where she stayed upon arrival. Her arrival had been planned before she discovered her partner Hollande, 59, was having an affair with actress Julie Gayet, 41, for long. A magazine had published photographs of Hollande coming to the latter's flat on a scooter.
Trierweiler was on a three-day trip here representing the international non-profit Action Against Hunger (Action Contre la Faim - ACF), of which Fight Hunger Foundation is an India chapter. She clarified that her trip to Mumbai was planned six months ago.
On Monday, she visited the Sion and other hospitals where she also tasted food given to the malnourished children. She remarked, "I cannot stand that these children have fewer chances than others. We should give same chances to all. We have children who suffer from malnutrition. That is why I am here."
Trierweiler also visited the urban health centre in Dharavi. The slums were made notorious by the Oscar award-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire.
Every 30 seconds an Indian child dies of malnutrition
She later inaugurated the Fight Hunger Foundation, the new India mission of the French charity organisation. “I have been working with ACF on issues related to malnutrition since 2011. Every thirty seconds an Indian child dies of malnutrition. I have three children from my previous marriage and I feel no child should suffer this fate. (Hollande has four children from former partner Segolene Royale, a Socialist party presidential candidate in 2007 from whom he split after her defeat by Nicolas Sarkozy. Since then he was living with Trierweiler who became the unofficial first lady after Hollande's election in 2012.) This trip was long due and I would have not missed this for anything in the world. I feel that being useful to others is the most fulfilling feeling,” Trierweiler said (in French). The ACF wants to save three million children by 2017.
Later in the evening she attended a fund raising dinner for Fight Hunger Foundation before flying back to France on Tuesday.
This is Trierweiler’s third visit to Mumbai. “I came to the city for the first time as a journalist with former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin’s entourage. For the second time, I visited the city with President Hollande as the first lady. This time around I have come for a cause,” she said.
