Women Founders

Adhikaar wins Union Square Award: submitted by co-founder Luna Ranjit

25th February, 2009 - Posted by salliegratch

VOICE FOR NEPALI-SPEAKING IMMIGRANTS:
Adhikaar Co-founders among the Recipients of the 2008 Union Square Awards

Woodside, NY: On Saturday, December 6, 2008, Adhikaar joined six other social justice organizations to receive the 2008 Union Square Awards, and became the first Nepali group to receive this prestigious award. The Union Square Awards is a framed photograph of the steps of the Supreme Court which was taken by the anonymous donor who established the award, and comes with a $50,000 grant.

Established in 2005 by four young immigrant women (Luna Ranjit, Rashmi Shrestha, Srijana Sthrestha, and Tafadzwa Pasipanodya), Adhikaar is the first women-led organization promoting human rights and social justice in Nepali-speaking immigrant communities in New York. We facilitate access to information and resources on immigration, health, workers’ rights, and women’s rights; organize against social injustices and human rights abuses; and conduct policy research and advocacy. Our community center in Woodside serves as a safe space for Nepali New Yorkers, especially for low-income women and youth, and there has been an increase in Nepali faces at social justice circles. Adhikaar also successfully changed the face of leadership within Nepali community by promoting women and youth leaders.

Fifteen representatives of Adhikaar, including three of the co-founders, board members, staff, youth and adult members, and volunteers, attended the ceremony at the historic Riverside Church in Manhattan. The ceremony opened and closed with performances by two of the ten Union Square Art Award winners –Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls and Urban Word.

The Union Square Awards program was created to recognize and encourage initiative in serving New York City communities. The award was established by an anonymous donor to honor New Yorkers who have taken action to improve people’s lives and advocate for social change, and is named after the park on 14th Street where New Yorkers have organized and spoken out about major social issues since the nineteenth century.

The Union Square Awards is a project of the Tides Center whose mission is to actively promote change toward a healthy society – one founded on principles of social justice, equal economic opportunity, a robust democratic process, and environmental sustainability.

Adhikaar’s work is made possible by generous contributions from the New York Foundation, North Star Fund, Fund for New Citizens, New York Women’s Foundation, South Asian American Leading Together, and many individual donors and local businesses, as well as hundreds of hours of pro-bono work by our dedicated volunteers.

For more information, please contact us at adhikaar@gmail.com or 718-937-1117, or visit us online at: www.adhikaar.org.

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Sallie Gratch

25th February, 2009 - Posted by salliegratch

Tough Time in the Life of a Founder

by Sallie Gratch Founder Women Founders Collective

Six weeks ago, I was faced with a task that far exceeded my experience and knowledge: switching the domain registration of Women Founders Collective (WFC) from one registrar to another.

Sound simple? It should have been. It was not. While I had web technical support, I understood that the task was too time consuming for WFC’s web techie. The problem was mine to track down who held WFC’s domain registration and then to transfer the domain to another registrar.

For the next three weeks, I learned how to tolerate “holding” on the telephone for up to 45 minutes until technical support took my call. I also learned to challenge technical support, always trying to move ahead, rather than end up where I started 45 minutes earlier. Sadly, what often felt like a step forward too often ended with the opening question still unanswered.

As my search continued, my spirits began to drop. Seeing a couple leisurely walking down the street, enjoying each other and their surroundings didn’t help. It felt as if my obsession with this task had removed the quality from my life. Was all this intensity worth it?

The time arrived for me to feel sorry for myself. And feeling sorry for myself helped me get back on track, to remember why I founded WFC in the first place: to support women founders globally so they would no longer feel alone.

I felt alone and frustrated until I thought of all the women founders I have met through WFC, women who share the same frustrations and despair, who keep at their work, no matter how many obstacles they encounter, because they believe in their cause.

I wouldn’t abandon WFC. In fact, I now understand, it is WFC that adds quality to my life.

And yes, I did resolve the issue of WFC’s domain registration. I felt as if I had accomplished the greatest feat in the world.

And, in fact, I had!

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