The Snehajyot
Samaj Kendra, Uttan, in collaboration with Centre for Social Action, held zonal
level celebrations for women across 8 zones. Around 1270 women in the age group
20 to 65 years participated in these events which included the traditional East
Indian songs, dance and skits on various social issues. The objective of
hosting these zonal level events was to encourage women to participate and come
forward to resolve community local social issues and spread social awareness on
cleanliness, relationships in family, solid waste management, and saving for
the future.The instant outcome of the program was seen at the zone of Devtalao,
Uttan where community people raised their voice against the issue of garbage
thrown at coastal sea of Uttan which is harmful to fish as well as the health
of people in the area. The youth, women and male members in the family came
together and approached MBMC to clear the garbage. As a result of this initiative,the area has
been cleaned up and the MBMC garbage vehicle now picks up the garbage on a daily
basis.
Women’s Leadership Program at Pali
A half-day Women’s Leadership
Program was held on 14th April, 2015 jointly organized by Sahjeevan
CCO, Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Pali along with Centre For Social Action. 65 women attended the program, where Ms.
Kinjal Maru of Infinity Consultancy Services was the resource person for the
day.
She started the session
with interactive activity where she requested the participants to form pairs
and asked each of them to prepare on two questions namely, 1) what would you
like to do? And 2) what can you do? She
allowed them 5 minutes to prepare and share with their partner. Later, the pair
was asked to come forward and each was requested to introduce their partner and
answer the two questions on behalf of their partner. Each womancame forward and
spoke with great confidence. Some of the examples of their answers were, I
would like to help others, I would like to visit the sick, I know tailoring, I
know cooking etc.
After this activity, the
women confessed that they were initially scared when they were asked to come
forward and speak as they lacked confidence - They were feeling shy and were
wondering what others will say about them, or whether others will laugh at
them. Ms. Kinjal pointed out that in order to gain self-confidence one should
ignore these thoughts; else one will never be able to achieve self
confidence. She later asked them a
second question whether they will be able to perform a task fruitfully? As an
example, she asked them to try and touch the ladder which was hanging on top.
Most of the women tried touching the ladder, but were not able to do so. After
some time she mentioned that if one is not able to do something by oneself,
they should take the help of others. It’s all in one’s mind whether one can do
something or not and the ladder happens to be a representation of one’s mind.
She made an important point that if we go out often, we will meet new people,
gain experience, which will help in building our confidence.
Ms. Kinjal stressed the
point that each one should develop faith in themselves. If someone makes a
mistake, they should still move forward.
When starting something new, they should not be afraid, but should make
efforts to go forward. They should not be thinking that I cannot do it as I am
not educated enough, but should set aside these thoughts and should encourage themselves
to build the confidence necessary to take the initiative forward. A very
important point she made was that we should not bother about what people will
say, rather we should live life on our terms, or else our self-confidence will
never grow.
Ms. Kinjal later called one
woman and asked her to make 100 dots in one minute. The woman managed to make
129 dots in one minute. On asking her how she managed to do it, she said that
initially, she was not sure if she could do it, but after she reached 100, she
continued to move on just because by that time she had developed a lot of
confidence. I will do only as per my capacity and not attempt to do more – such
a thought should not be kept in one’s mind.
At the end of the session,
one of the participants – Diana Pereira shared that the participants liked the
session very much and requested that more such sessions should be conducted in
future.
Prerna Seva Kendra, Dongri Parish in collaboration with CSA organized a half day program for women on “Women in this fast changing world” on 22nd April 2015 at the Parish Church Hall. This program was open to all and saw an attendance of 235 women and a few men. The objective of the program was to inspire the women from the area to take charge and come forward in their lives with the assistance of each other in this fast changing world. Two resource people viz. Mrs. Shobha Sutar and Mrs. Mala Naidu were invited for this program. Mrs. Shobha a Social Worker from Mumbai is currently handling many SHG Groups and through her intervention has managed to bring about a change in the lives of the women, children and men from the slums in Mumbai. Her work has been acknowledged by the Municipal Corporation of Mumbai by conferring on her the Mayor’s Award on 8th March 2015 (International Women’s Day) for her outstanding contribution in the development and empowerment of women in the slums of Mumbai.
The other resource person for the day Mrs. Mala Naidu, another Social Worker from Mumbai along with Mrs. Shobha handles 160 SHG groups. She shared how the good work done by her has borne fruit through the admission secured by her two children in Engineering Colleges without paying capitation fees. The personal sharings of these women on the struggles they faced in their lives in order to make a mark in this mega city of Mumbai touched the hearts of the participants. The participants who are simple and not highly educated women from Dongri were inspired and motivated by these sharings and expressed that they could easily connect with the resource persons as they spoke from their hearts. When Mrs. Shobha showed the Mumbai Mayor’s Award to the participants saying “tomorrow your names too can be on this”, she got an instant response from Mrs. Justina R Naik (Prerna CCO Staff) “Next year, my name will be on one such award.”
Mr. Mario Remedios (CSA Staff), also took this opportunity to inform the participants about the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana Scheme. The program also included a dance followed by a street play by the women on “Women in this fast changing world”. The same was appreciated and the success of it could be measured by the thumping applauds received after the play. At the end of the program, spot prizes were given to the participants who gave correct answers to the questions pertaining to naming of successful women’s achievements e.g. 1st woman President, 1st woman astronaut, etc.
Leadership
Development and Self Confidence for the Women of Chowk
Training
program on Leadership Development and Self Confidence for the Women Leaders was
conducted at Sahyog Samaj Kendra, Chowk Parish on the 28th of April
2015 for half day. The program was attended by 41 Women Leaders of Chowk Parish
under the project of “Holistic Development of the People of the Dharavi Island”.
Sr. Shweta Dabre and Ms. Suvidha Patil
from the SahyogSamaj Kendra, Chowk coordinated the Training Program along with
the CSA staff Mario Remedios.
The
resource person for the day, Ms. Kinaj Maru, told the women about the
leadership role and how they should themselves be confident and only then can
they lead others in their respective groups. The women were asked if they had
the confidence to touch the ceiling of the training hall, at first they laughed
at the proposal but one group took the challenge and as three of them stood on
3 chairs lifted another women to form a pyramid ultimately touching the ceiling
of the hall. This was then repeated by 2
other groups and thus the ceiling was conquered by the women as they gained
confidence that, ‘they can do it’!
The
women were also divided into 4 groups and a role play was given to each group
to get out their leadership skills and increase their self confidence. The
women whole heartedly participated in the training program and gave a feedback
that such programs should be of a longer duration as they had just got charged
and wanted more.
Social issues and gender discrimination – Uttan
On 28th April 2015 Snehajyot Samaj Kendra, Uttan in collaboration with CSA organized a half day workshop on Social issues and Gender Discrimination which was attended by 27 women leaders of the community. The objective of this workshop was to provide awareness on local social issues and apprise the women on how as a group they could address and resolve these issues. The resource person for this session was Ms. Jean Pereira, Post graduate in mental health counseling, who is presently working with Kripa Foundation. In Uttan area women are mostly affected by the issue of alcoholism. To address this issue the resource person has gave some valuable inputs to the participants to take initiative and resolve the alcoholism issue they are facing in their day to day life and from which their married life is badly affected. One of the participants shared that in MotaGoan, Uttan, out of around 250 married women, 65 women are widows only because of alcoholism. The resource person gave inputs on parenting and how women can help their children to keep away from alcohol. She suggested that they can refer some of the cases on heavy alcoholics to Kripa Foundation for rehabilitation.
It was stressed that through community mobilization of women, we can address this issue and organized awareness camps can be organized in each zone. One of the participants suggested that to spread awareness at the zonal level of Uttan, the youth group can be made to perform street plays to address the issue of alcoholism, while organizations like CSA and Snehjyot Samaj Kendra should organize formal presentations on the effects of alcohol on a person’s health and his family life.
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