It was a breezy International Women’s Day on March 8, when the SIB team partnered with SRV Hospital to fulfill the ‘Embrace Equity’ mantra.
· It conducted Haemogram tests for 26 women at the Abhaya Ashram, to fight high concentration of anaemia. The tests helped to identify the counts of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, the concentration of hemoglobin and the hematocrit in each woman.
· Doctors in the team gave talks on health, awareness and ways to enhance strength and immunity.
· SIB also donated foodgrains from Ernst and Young employees, as part of its project on the Joy of Giving.
International Seniors Day (October 1)
SIB had a spirited show on International World Seniors Day, when it became part of Hiriyara Habba, or ‘A Festival for Senior Citizens’ in partnership with an NGO, ‘Vayah Vikas’.
An SIB member is the CEO of Vayah Vikas.
SIB managed a stall at the fair, helping to brand and create awareness. The excellent arrangements, management, organisation and a high footfall made it eye-catching, with a number of goodies, such as SIB’s orange and blue caps, sashes and jackets.
A number of members acted as SIB’s ambassadors.
SIB also got immense coverage in TV9 and Udaya Channel. Watch:
Domestic Violence (November 18)
Senior advocate Anuradha Pradeep spoke about reducing Domestic Violence through legal steps, psychological counselling, helplines and partners such as Nightingale and MAVA.
It is important to fight back and identify practical steps that can help women to defend themselves, she said.
Mindful Parenting (October 18)
Counsellor Anita Belagodu gave a talk on Mindful Parenting at Tunbridge High School for SIB, in collaboration with the Rotary Club, on October 18. It was a Youth Services Initiative.
“Mindful parenting is your interactive effort to bring in attention, curiosity and awareness with your children,” she said.
How will you do it?-
By listening to the child
By reflecting on what the child is saying and
In choosing to respond , that enlivens both child and the parent.”
World Skills Day (July 15)
SIB, with its offspring, SI Delhi, presented a first-of-its-kind hybrid counselling session to women at the SAFAL Skill Development Centre, through talks in in Kannada and English by four expert psychologists from Delhi and Bangalore. They explained soft skills such as self-confidence, team building, and gender equality, with simple activities for physical as well as virtual attendees. The set-up, lunch and journaling kits in reusable bags were sponsored by two SIB members. SIB was the mother club of SI Delhi, so it handheld one of Delhi’s projects on World Skills Day, July 15.
SIB collected three tonnes, or 3,000 kilograms of foodgrains to feed 30,000 mouths.
Partnering with ‘Lets do some good’ and ‘Social Creds & Gift of time’ in 2022 (Sept to Dec) and 2023 (Nov-Dec), SIB distributed eco-friendly jute bags to 10 elite schools and apartments. The donees were encouraged to fill the bags, each of which could hold 1.5 kilogrammes, sealed with a drawstring or Velcro.
SIB collected the packed bags and donated them to eight underprivileged organisations. As one tonne of grains can make 10,000 meals, SIB has helped to feed 30,000 mouths!
About 10 underprivileged women were employed to stitch about 3,000 eco-friendly jute bags.
SIB members also visited the schools with partners to give some talks about nutrition, eco-friendly materials, livelihoods, social service and SIB’s brand activities. SIB distributed 3,000 certificates for the children.
SIB thus scaled up its ongoing Fistful of Grains project, which was adopted by NASI’s 18 clubs in 2021. The project helped SIB to tackle eight SDGs: 1 (No poverty); 2 (Zero Hunger); 3 (Good Health and Well-Being); 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth); 10 (Reduced inequalities); 12 (Responsible consumption and production); 13 (Climate Action) and 17 (Partnership for the goals).
In the heat and noise of the bustling city, the sturdy building of the Doddanekundi Higher Secondary Government School has been a beacon for many underprivileged children through the years, even if it is not in very good condition today. SIB adopted the school for many welfare activities. Here are a few:
Workshop on menstrual hygiene
October 25
· Vidya, a subject matter expert from Women of the World (WOW), gave a talk on menstrual hygiene and distributed sanitary kits to 167 students.
· Many more were distributed at Nekkundi Primary school.
· SIB handed over 24 sets of sports T-shirts and shorts for girls, who had already specified their requirements.
· A smartboard was donated to the 8th grade in collaboration with Yuva Foundation.
Workshop for Medicinal Plants (September 9)
· The ‘Eco Guardians Club’ of 20 students, set up by SIB, kickstarted its first project.
· A workshop on medicinal plants for 8th and 9th standard students was conducted by SIB member Dr Prathibha Vinay, a renowned palynologist. She spoke about the benefits of herbs for primary health care.
· About 50 medicinal plants were donated, which will be nurtured by the Eco Guardians Club.
World Environment Day (June 5)
· SIB commemorated World Environment Day (June 5) on the 10th. It screened a Kannada documentary, ‘Gandhada Gudi’, to 8th grade students, in which the famous film actor, Puneet Rajkumar, talked about preserving flora and fauna and avoiding plastic pollution.
· It was followed by a quiz that had an award of a solar lantern for the topper.
· Meanwhile, 9th and 10th grade students were tuned into informative talks on Medicinal Plants, Waste segregation and Management.
· SIB gave Grade 10 students 900 notebooks – six sets of 100-page notebooks each.
· SIB also launched the ‘SI Eco Guardians Club’ for students.
Science Museum (August 30)
SIB funded an educational science trip and lunch for middle-school girls to the Visveswaraya Science Museum.
Fellowships (July 10)
SIB paid Rs 28,500 as pre-university college admission fees for the daughter of a maid. She completed her 10th grade with flying colours and wants to study further in order to take her family out of the poverty circle.
Softboards (March 3)
About 18 softboards were donated by a member. Immediately, the boards sang of the children’s presentations.
“Shout. Shout together. Give a vicious twist to groping hands. Jerk them up. Kick the male stomach.”
The voices of 40 girls learning self-defence martial arts skills suffused the terrace of Shrushti Degree College on October 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. SIB’s partnering Rotary Club trainers were explaining simple, practical steps for self-defence. The exercise kickstarted the 16 Orange Days of Activism to teach women and girls how to give back as good as they get. “Never feel like a victim. Always hit back.”
SIB’s WOW partner also gave 60 hygiene kits to the girls.
SIB also donated 10 blankets
For the webinar, Dr. Daphne Pillai, co-founder of the Pillai Group of Institutions, spoke about the pros and cons of Hybrid education, highlighting challenges faced by schools and colleges. These included problems in a village, the expense of maintaining technicians, the emotional element of technology and the lack of user interaction.
Margaret Clark, psychologist, addressed inclusivity, noting that today we need to rebalance relationships. What do we continue, abandon and reimagine? Hybrid education is a good step forward, but we need to work with the government to address the poor, the marginalised and those who need special education. Technology is important but expensive, so the government’s role is crucial.
Farzana Dohadwalla, a national and international educator, gave different perspectives on what the world faces with its changing Education system. Even though education has changed, today reformatting and restructuring is needed. Hybrid education is here to stay, but needs facilitators.
This was also the National Day of the girl child, so Vinisha Umashankar a child prodigy and green innovator, honoured SIB by becoming an honorary member. A Grade 10 student, Vinisha has spoken at COP26 to an audience of 3,000. Since she was 12 years old, she has won many awards for her environmental initiatives.
Senior advocate Anuradha Pradeep, commented on India’s Constitution, just two days before the Republic Day.
]]>On April 22, SI Bangalore teamed up with SI Calcutta to celebrate the WORLD EARTH DAY with a special webinar.
https://www.facebook.com/soroptimistinternationalbangalore/videos/322152619856745/
Also called the Mother Earth Day, it is an important day every year, helping to raise awareness about conservation and biodiversity.
Dr Dhriti Banerjee, scientist and first woman Director of the Zoological Survey of India was the first speaker. She outlined the powerful role that women have always played for conservation, especially due to their empathy and feeling for future generations, at a time when the earth is scarce and straining on resources. She also rued that although women are guardians of the environment, their representation in national policies and representation is below 30%. It is important that we fight the poison of pesticides, which are polluting our environment and are carcinogenic, killing the earth and its living beings.
The next speaker was Dr Pravenjeet, an expert on environment, energy and infrastructure, who said that minimising waste and exploitation of the earth’s resources is the answer to our conservation problems. He showed a special Bio-Methanation Waste-to-Energy project, set up for the first time in Nashik, with the support of the government. It is a unique scheme that has helped to compost solid waste, sewage, generate electricity and convert carbon dioxide to energy. It is necessary to think in terms of new ecoparadigms, he said.
The last speaker, Dr Vandana Shiva, is also called an “environmental hero”. She outlined the tragedy of the rich, polluting countries of the world – mainly the US – trapping the poorer, smaller countries. Mother Earth is a vibrant, living being but everyone is caged in it, she said. Thus, harming others effectively harms ourselves. The theme of our discussion should be: “Invest in the Planet.” Mother Earth is not for Sale, she said, because we are all inter- connected. We need to take care of ourselves and our farmers.
]]>- Preethi, who got admitted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. The school is ranked 13 th in the Masters Data-Science degree course list. Preethi was helped by SIB since 2014 to complete her school education through scholarships. She got employment as a programme analyst at Cognizant Technologies.
- Santoshi Bist, who completed her II PUC academic year 2022-23 from the Community
Centre PUC college, thanks to the financial help afforded by a kind-hearted SIB member - Kubra, who could clear her First Semester creditably, thanks to SIB’s help.
- Sadhana Vachani, who is a diabetic patient. She was helped to undertake dialysis and
will be going for multiple sittings through the kind-hearted donation by an SIB member,
through the Good Samaritan Award.
]]>It is heartwarming to hear of success stories from the women. For instance, the following is the complete letter from Preethi:
“I am glad to inform you that I have been offered a seat from University of Wisconsin-
Madison, USA for Masters in Data-Science. Since this University has a world ranking of #13
for Data-science, I believe this course will add value to my career path. I am grateful to you
for the support that you have provided me all through.”
I am writing this to express my gratitude to SOROPTIMIST INTERNATIONAL,
BANGALORE, INDIA for the help throughout my educational period.
Your support has helped me to shape my career and grow as a person. With your constant
support I have successfully completed my SSLC with 92%,PUC with 90% and Enginnering in
Electronics and Communication with a cgpa of 8.75 /10.
After my graduation I’m serving as a Programmer Analyst for Cognizant Technology
Solutions.
I am glad to inform you that I have been offered a seat from University of Wisconsin-
Madison,USA for Masters in Data-Science.
Since this University has a world ranking of #13 for Data-science,I believe this course will
add value to my career path.
I am grateful to you for the support that you have provided me all through.
Thank you,
Preethi
- Ramakka, who was helped to open a greens shop and is reviving her business.
- Manjula Reddy, running a stall selling tea, biscuits and cigarettes and funding her children’s online education. She makes a profit everyday. She intends to add groceries to her shop and expand her sales and business.
- Sheela Tirupathi, a washerwoman, who is now running a poultry business and is educating
her three girls. She has bought an android phone to facilitate their online education.
Three SIB members, who volunteered to be their ‘guardian angels’, are following their cases closely and report that the women are satisfied and thankful to SIB for having improved their lives.
SIB has invested and helped to Enable and Empower the chosen women, based on their Aadhar, ration cards, bank details and photographs.
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