WFC’s Nepal Tour Covered in VOW Magazine
25th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
WFC’s recent tour to Nepal was covered in VOW Magazine. You can download a PDF version.
You can also learn more about VOW Magazine here.
Tags: Nepal
Angel of Kathmandu
25th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
Kathmandu, Nepal, January 16:
Question: when do you know a woman trusts you?
Answer: when, in a public toilet, she asks you to watch her purse while she goes into the toilet stall.
This is what happened in the Kathmandu airport. I walked into the women’s toilet to be confronted with a familiar stench and a row of urinals. Spotting several enclosed toilet stalls, and refusing to leave, I dismissed the urinals and started to head for a stall when a lively woman walked in and exclaimed, “what are those urinals doing here?” We laughed about it, the stench, and our shared intent to ignore the possibility we may be in the men’s room.
We quickly forgot the primary reason we both had entered the women’s toilet, and began to ask questions of each other. Before long, she knew about Women Founders Collective, about our travels, in particular, our search for women founders in Kathmandu. Betsy soon joined us, and within moments, the three of us had decided that our new friend would host our WFC Kathmandu meeting at her house.
You won’t be surprised to know that this woman’s name is Angela, truly our angel here in Kathmandu! She has kept close tabs with us during our stay, offering to take us to our hotel from the airport, inviting us to her home for dinner, planning an outing to view the Himalayas from a hilltop…and the list goes on and on.
The women we have been meeting on our travels are very much like Angela, eager to assist us, to share their lives with us, to welcome us into their work, to learn about WFC. Rekha Mody, our host in Kolkata and the reason for our being here, has orchestrated our movements within India and Nepal. Although originally planning to be with us throughout our travels, Rekha is heading to Los Angeles where she will be working on an exhibition to mark India’s 60th anniversary, their independence from the British. The exhibit opens in August, 2007.
So Betsy and I are on our own now. Equipped with Rekha’s network, names and phone numbers of women in both Kathmandu and Delhi (with a side trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal), and with the prospects of meeting more Angela’s along the way, Betsy and I are in good hands!
And yes, Angela did ask me to watch her purse when she walked into the toilet stall!
To be continued. Sallie January 16, 2007
Tags: Nepal
A message from Rekha Mody, India host: January 14, 2007
25th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
Sallie and Betsy in India Women Founders Collective “I was the first to touch the tree of knowledge first to bite the red apple… I was first to distinguish between modesty and immodesty… I was the first to break the golden shackles of luxurious pleasure. I was the first rebel banished from paradise, exiled. I learned that human life was greater than paradise. I was first to know.” Kabita Sinha
Beginning January 2007, two American ladies have ventured out of America to understand the women’s movement in India and Nepal. Stree Shakti The Parallel Force has volunteered to connect them to many women founders in these two countries. Stree Shakti is a networking movement, a collective voice of women seeking justice and equality. Stree Shakti is working for the cause of women’s upliftment and awakening, but it does not have a feminist bias. On the contrary, this organization is giving a new orientation to women power for fulfillment in life, not only for itself but also for those who come into the sphere of its influence. This organization is not working for woman as a power, but for the power, which emanates from her and sustains all human life. When we conceive of Shakti in an Indian cultural context, Shakti is capacity rather than power. She is a source of energy to man. Man can function only when his capacity is activated. No male god in the Hindu Pantheon functions without being activated by the female energy. In other words, it is concept of complimentarity between man and woman rather than that of equality. Egalitarianism has led to undesirable conflicts. Complementarities are the principle in consonance with the corresponding modern theory in physics. The entire Cosmos functions in harmony and harmony alone. The Indian way of living has been based on harmony, not only between man and woman, but also between men, women and nature. To elaborate; one harmony leads to another and brings happiness to all.’ www.streeshakti.com The trip is divided in three phases , Kolkata , Kathmandu and New Delhi. I took on the host responsibility of their trip in Kolkata. They attended the Annual Stree Shakti Awards, Sallie as a special guest explained the importance of women founders network . One day was dedicated to field visit where they visited projects of Divya Chaya Trust a member of Stree Shakti network which I founded in 1984. www.divyachayatrust.org.in . They met up Women founders at a tea hosted by Neeru Poddar co founder of DCt , the group was diverse with women working in field of women empowerment, children with disabilities and mentally challenged children. Sallie and Besty also met women founders in private interview working in theater, writers and political issues. In total they met 11 women founders. Second phase of their trip in Nepal women founder Indra Shreshtha will link them up with other founders . In Delhi Kamal Chugh is hosting a tea on 22 January to introduce them to women founders and Kiran Modi is networking to make it a success. All three are powerful women founders, and I am sure they will make it a success. I will meet Betsy and Sallie on 27 January in Delhi and we will review the connections they have made. There is one mission to which I am dedicated is to establish a women’s Centre in India so that the networking may happen naturally and not be linked to individual or organizational initiative. I would request any one who shares my vision to contact me . “If only the women of the world would come together they could display such heroic non-violence as to kick away the atom bomb like a mere ball.” M.K. Gandhi Rekha Mody Founder Stree Shakti The Parallel Force streeshakti@hotmail.com
WFC India Diary: London meeting, January 8, 2007
25th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
With a 12 hour lay-over in London Heathrow Airport, Betsy Chandler and I rushed into town to attend a WFC luncheon meeting. The idea of making good use of those 12 hours was suggested by Rekha Modi, our host in India. And, tapping into the remarkable network of Zerbanoo Gifford, Rekha’s and my mutual friend, Dorothy Dalton was asked to organize the details of the meeting at an Accounting Firm in London’s Financial District. (Thank you again Dorothy!)
All the details were taken care of. However, I was still concerned how WFC would be received, whether the invited guests would welcome an idea imported to London by someone totally unfamiliar to them. Added to my discomfort was the unexpected London traffic we encountered riding the underground, causing us to arrive at the meeting 30 minutes late. However, walking into a brightly lit conference room, we were greeted by 12 smiling faces, a room filled with women enjoying both the sandwiches and each other’s company.
We started the introductions almost immediately; I added my one request to include in their narrative a brief sketch of their nonprofit as well as a reflection on some aspect, a high or a low, of each woman’s founder journey. The energy in the room mounted as the women’s sharing began; women pulled in closer to one another, sitting forward in their chairs. Lively interaction among the women, reflecting on specifics issues raised began to flow. One young woman, originally from Dominica, now living in London, expressed her belief that nothing happens “just by chance”, that everything is purposeful. She used her coming to this meeting as her example, that she hadn’t planned to come, but that her colleague encouraged her to. She went on to discuss her reluctance, up until minutes ago, to begin her own nonprofit. However, with the encouragement she had received from this group, and the women’s promised support, she now wanted to announce that her nonprofit will be launched, thanks to what had happened at this meeting. Applause followed.
Our two hours together passed very quickly. Names and emails were shared. A group photo was taken. (To be posted on the WFC website.) I encouraged the women to become familiar with our, now their website, to use it to reach out to one another as well as to connect with women founders in far distant places. I especially asked them to add their comments about this meeting to my London meeting blog, a great way for anyone who visits this site to meet these fantastic women!
Our London meeting demonstrated once again the appeal of WFC, the powerful attraction it has as a support network to women founders and the ease with which a WFC group can move ahead (if so desired) on their own. That’s empowerment!
Saying our goodbyes, Betsy and I shifted back to Heathrow Airport to begin our second night of air travel, to land in Delhi for one more late evening flight to Kolkata (Calcutta) and finally, on January 9, to arrive at the home of our India host, Rekha Mody. To be continued. Sallie Posted: January 11, 2007
Award for Lily Thapa, founder of Women for Human Rights, Kathmandu, Nepal
25th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
Reported from Lily Thapa’s office in Kathmandu, Nepal:
On March 9, 2007 the Boss Magazine conferred the 3rd Boss Top ten Business Excellence Awards. Ashoka Fellow Lily Thapa working for empowerment of single women (widows) won the Best Social Entrepreneur Award.
The Boss is a magazine that seeks to promote an environment conducive to business excellence through information. the boss also is a forum that celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship in Nepal. In 2005 they added a new category Best Social Entrepreneur amongst the other 9 categories which is a tribute to the spirit of entrepreneurship and Business Excellence in Nepal.The Boss which originally featured only business icons have now started to feature social entrepreneurs , many of them Ashoka Fellows, because of the close association Ashoka has had with Boss.
Comment from WFC: Congratulations Lily! (Sallie Gratch and Betsy Chandler met with women founders in Lily’s office during their travels to Nepal in January, 2007.)
Uma Ghimire
24th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
History of Rural Women’s Network Nepal.
Written By: Uma Ghimire
Nepal is developing country where are multi cultural, multi languages and multi cast system. It is located in South Asia between the largest country China and India. Covering with the land of 1,47,181 aq.km and 2,31,51,423 population, all of them 14% lives in urban and 86% lives in rural area of Nepal. In reality, women literacy rate is less than 30 %. In Nepal there is not good condition of children and women. Our society is also affected by different problems and totally back in the case of women education. Anyhow there are few educated women in our locality and we use to talk about women justice, equality and rights to build their own identity. I hope, you know about the internal war of Nepal between Maoist and government in which about thirteen thousand of people were killed, twelve thousand became widow, and thirty thousand of children became orphans about 1 million children affected by the 10 years war directly and indirectly.
Looking condition of those children and widows. We can’t sit peacefully than we discuss in our societies with educated women to do something for women and children from our side. We gather from different society of our district, from different community women we discuss to make the executive committee, all of the women we make a nine member executive committee. I (Uma Ghimire) became president from the first meeting. After then we registered this organization in district administration office Sindhuli and different government and non- government office in Nepal. We open our central office at Hatpate- 8, Sindhuli.
At the beginning time society and even women were against us. But we didn’t lose our hope. So that we can move strongly towards our target and did all the possible work that we could do with source and resources that we had. Now a-days many uneducated women and people are also supporting and encouraging us. This is how we established our organization collecting even a penny and a rupee for about years from everyone interested people in our society to fight against men dominated society created by our own uneducated brother and sisters. Now we are not limited in our district only. We are going to open our central networking office in mid Kathmandu (The capital city of Nepal). We are networking all the women rights organization in different district of Nepal. I hope in near future we will connect all the women and child rights organization in different local level all over the nation.
Sangita Nirola
24th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
Founder Story by Sangita Nirola, Kathmandu, Nepal
What I would most appreciate having you write is a statement about your experience as a founder. In other words, describe your “founder journey”. (Question posed to Sangita by Sallie Gratch, founder, Women Founders Collective.)
My journey as a woman founder began on January 2002 when I was a victim of gender discrimination at my work place. I was working in a five star hotel in Kathmandu, Nepal. I joined the hotel at its pre-opening stage and served the hotel to the best of my capacity. But when the hotel started to give promotions to male candidates, overlooking me, I realized that I was facing gender bias. My manager was not convinced that a woman could run the department. The very day I realized this gender bias, I typed my resignation letter and submitted it to my department head. I wanted to show them that earning a good salary was not my only priority; I also needed justice.
That was the turning point of my career. I saw this as an opportunity to challenge them, to show I knew I can perform at a high level and that one day I will show them my strength as a leader. I was very disturbed by my Manager’s statement that I do not have leadership quality. I believed otherwise.
When I went home I started thinking of other women in my country who are less educated and privileged than I. My eye opening for initiating the NGO for women’s empowerment was: ” If a woman like me who has access to resources, who is privileged, educated and born and raised in the city faces gender discrimination, how and what is the situation for other women in this country who are less fortunate than I?”
It was then that I decided to found an NGO named Swati. “Swati” is the name of the goddess of power. I chose this name because I wanted to show all men and the community that women are more powerful if they are united and if they want to do something, they mean it and complete it.
When I started Swati, I had no idea how to begin. Therefore, I went to visit many organizations to gather information and resources. The persons from most organizations were not very helpful and cooperative; but I still continued my effort and gathered a lot of information. Slowly, I began reading books on gender and empowerment and participated in various workshops, seminars and focus group discussions. I gave whatever money I had to set up an office. I rented a flat and started the office with one supporting staff. Through the Internet, I learned about Global Fund for Women USA (GFW USA). I started communicating with them via email. Then one day, one of my friends recommended an Australian volunteer to me by the name of Amy Wickham. Amy and I then started searching funds through the Internet. Finally we were able to convince GFW USA of Swati’s worth and we received seed money of $7000. With this grant, we started lady drivers’ training, the main program of Swati.
I believe that unless women are not economically independent, they cannot be empowered. With this vision, I started providing skill trainings for underprivileged groups of women, women from conflict areas and single women. Swati is the first women’s organization in Nepal who produces lady drivers. Our lady drivers are hired by UN agencies along with other NGOs. The women earn a very good salary compared to jobs most women have.
We also started weekly interaction programs on women’s issues. These programs are focused on issues for housewives who lack knowledge of their rights and other aspects of gender and empowerment. Every week we invite prominent personalities to deliver speeches on a given theme. This program helped us a lot to interact with many people as well as with journalists resulting in our making a special place for ourselves in the media. In this way, our program has been given much attention through the media.
Now I am proud to say that Swati is a well-respected and well-established NGO in Nepal.
Today, Swati has reached five years of its journey toward the empowerment of women. Swati also works for good governance. In reframing and restructuring Swati’s vision and mission, we now have a mission of promoting good governance through women’s empowerment. Our long-term vision is to mainstream women in the socio-economic and political development of my country.
Swati has been running smoothly for the past three years as we were able to gain funding from major donors like ESD/DFID, USAID, GFW and Danida HUGOU.
However, all of our projects will be soon phased out. Now I am in such a position that I have to decide which area, sector and donors I should work with. I have to secure funds for the coming five years. Swati has become well recognized and currently has six district offices outside Kathmandu valley. Each office requires money to run its activities and for the running cost of the office.
Right now I am in such a position that I do not have the funding but still want to run programs and offices our six districts. It’s a great challenge for me. But still I am hopeful and believe in myself that I can manage all these problems and will get funding.
The only thing is that if I get a little amount of money in this difficult period, I would be recharged for further activities. In this time of transition for my organization, friends, women founders, I need your moral support and suggestions.
Sangita Nirola
Founder
Swati
www.swatinepal.org.np
Kathmandu, Nepal
July 2007
Rekha Mody
24th February, 2009 - Posted by admin
Founder, secretary, Stree Shakti The Parallel Force
Kolkata, India
There is no tragedy greater than a woman being forced to abandon her child in order to allow the child to survive.
I founded in 1984 the children’s charity, Divya Chaya Trust, as a result of being exposed to many such children, especially girl children who were abandoned by their single mothers. God’s natural plan is that every mother looks after her child; yet the plight of these women was such that they chose the terrible option of child abandonment. It became very clear to me that I have to work for women’s empowerment to avoid this tragedy; otherwise my work would remain incomplete.
Hence, in 1998 I founded Stree Shakti The Parallel Force. Stree Shakti aims at harnessing individual and collective energies of organizations engaged in human welfare. This forum, apart from providing a platform of joint action, also aims at the collection of related information. It is a movement to rouse and activate women of every class and creed and empower them with the necessary inputs to work as catalysts for fundamental social change. It is not an exclusive forum and it would like to have a helping hand from everyone, men, women and children.
- Creating visibility of women achievers
- Working with the grass root women - Swayam Siddha Self Empowered
- Working towards an Equal Opportunity Commission
As the journey goes on, my involvement is increasing as new challenges are thrown open. It has also enhanced my commitment as now I see myself as not just a community worker but as a women empowerment campaigner.
November 2007