A champion for women’s rights, Canadian darling Serinda Swan, who was in Kuala Lumpur for a worthy cause, is all about putting her star power to good use.
Serinda Swan is sitting by the window of a local café, sipping a cup of green tea frappucino, looking absolutely like your average girl next door. Dressed in faded skinny jeans and a sleeveless top, Swan flashes her pearly whites as I arrived for our meeting. Extending a warm handshake, she introduced herself, not as one of Hollywood’s rising stars but as Serinda Swan from Vancouver. Her genuine personality is definitely something that Hollywood is in need of.
Swan has worked with popular TV shows such as Supernatural to Hawaii Five-O and Reaper. She has been gracing TV screens since 2009, but it wasn’t until two years ago that she caught her big break as the feisty Erica Reed in the TV series Breakout Kings. This translucent eyed beauty has also dabbled in the big screen, starring in The Break-Up Artist as well as Tron Legacy among a few others.
But as impressive as it may be for Swan who only just a few years ago decided to pursue acting seriously, it is perhaps her real-life character of philanthropist that takes centre stage in the eyes of the world.
“You make time to give back to the community. With the voice you are given as an actor, you need to understand the responsibility of that voice. Without acting, I can’t shine the spotlight that I have now, to raise awareness about social issues whether in Malaysia or internationally.”
The actress works with different charities including the 'Somaly Mam Foundation', UN Foundation’s' Nothing But Nets', and 'Helfer International'. In 2011, she joined ‘Friends to Mankind’, an organisation that partners with non-profits to raise awareness and funds through educational campaigns, as a founding ambassador. In fact, it was because of the latter that she came to Malaysia. An avid supporter of charitable causes, she lent her support to Malaysian teens Aishy and Apshy Vimal who were looking to raise funds for charity.
This stunning star reveals that all it took for her to find her purpose in life was a CNN documentary on sex trafficking. “It has always been in my personality to be curious about everything. I like to know about what is going on around me. So for me to not know about the second largest criminal enterprise in the world, it’s absolutely insane.”
Shocked by the sheer numbers of how many and how young the girls are getting, Swan swiftly got on a plane and flew to Thailand and Cambodia among several other countries. She visited shelters and talked to survivors to see what it is she could do to help. “After sitting down with the rescue victims when I was in Cambodia, I decided that my goal was to make sure that no woman or child would ever be denied freedom when they reach out for help because of a lack of funding,” articulates a compassionate Swan. “To hear their tatler_tatler_stories... I’m not smarter or better than any of the girls that are trafficked. I want to help them choose their future and make sure they get to do what they choose to do.”