women power day

women power poster i made.., originally uploaded by alexandrafletcher.

Last Saturday I helped organise a Women Power Day. We invited women from the Self Help Groups to a local community hall. Interestingly Indians give invitations to events 2 days before - and they are hand written and hand delivered. This will ensure that no one will forget. i was stressing that no one would show because we were organising everything very last minute. The poster was printed the day before... my event management skills were being tested as there is absolutely no organisation. But somehow it all comes together in the end.
There were three motivational speakers - two were men from the bank who talked to the women about ways to use the money from the microfinancing loans. This is a problem, managing what the women do with the loans... on-lending is a problem.And there was another lady who was a Principal and founder of a local school - she talked about her experience starting the school and told women to be brave.
I also invited six of the women from the groups - six who had been successful with the use of the loans and started businesses - to give a small presentation on how and why they started their business and discuss the challenges that they faced from their community and family and how they were supported etc. It proved to be a great way for the other women to see how people just like them could change their situation. With a little self confidence and a loan.

i gave a small speech at the end of the program and talked about my own experience of gender discrimination back home in my old job and said that women everywhere suffer the same obstacles in a different way. But that we all have to make sure that we don't stop striving for change.. I kept it brief and I think they appreciated it. Sometimes it's only best to share your experiences -rather than to start professing solutions.