NEW DELHI:

Jade Goody, who triggered a racism row on the recent British reality TV show Celebrity Big Brother, donated $50,000 on February 27 to an Indian charity that cares for children who run away from their homes.

Goody spent nearly 90 minutes with some of the children at the Anubhav or ‘Experience’ charity in the Indian capital.

“I am not giving the money to improve my image. It is to improve the lives of the underprivileged children,” she told reporters.

Indian Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty won the TV reality contest after being confined in a house for about three weeks with Goody and other participants. Goody outraged the public and sparked allegations of racism after she bad-mouthed Shetty’s cooking of Indian food and mocked her accent. After the British public voted to evict Goody from the reality TV show in January, she insisted that she was not racist.

On Tuesday, Goody said she was donating to charities whatever she earned from appearing on the TV show and subsequent media interviews.

“Seeing the pain of these children put everything into perspective and made me think that the problem I might have at home is nothing in comparison to what these children are going through. It has been an amazing day,” she said.

Goody, who is on a four-day visit to New Delhi, said she has received a warm welcome. “This was not a publicity stunt. Nobody knew I was coming out here,” she said.