Thirty-three women from marginalised and underprivileged backgrounds aged 17 to 25 took part in the US Consulate and Uddami India Foundation’s ‘Power to Empower’ project. The finale for the year-long project was held at American Center’s Lincoln Room on August 20. ‘Power to Empower’ included three workshops to equip these women with various skills. The first was ‘Gender Sensitivity and Leadership’ after which the participants carried forward their knowledge to 470 young girls bringing about much-needed discussions to empower women
Photographs by Soumyajit DeyHarshamanjari Nanda, the executive director of Uddami India Foundation, said associating with the US consulate helped give the girls a stellar experience where they could use the library at American Center and gain knowledge. ‘We did a screening process to pick the best candidates and these 33 have done such a good job that their peers have been enquiring if we would conduct something like this again, which I hope we will,’ she said. The director explained how the second workshop was directed at building entrepreneurial skills where the girls were divided into groups of five to set up a prototype business model
The resource persons who played an important role in empowering the participants were (from left) US Consulate employee Bobby Hore, independent digital marketing expert Sourav Sengupta, owner of Halo Heritage Reshmi Chatterjee, solution strategist and chief of staff- customer excellence at Yellow.ai Bodhayan Bhattacharyya, data scientist-applied AI at Deloitte Arnab Ghosh, Biswajit Chitrakar, Lamprini Bakery owner Kelly Dwyer, Sujata Ganguli The Inference executive director Arkita Pal and Harshamanjari Nanda, the executive director of Uddami India Foundation. After the second workshop, each group had to set up a business for two months and monitor their revenue. The third workshop was around the topic of ‘Understanding Information Communication and Technology (ICT) and Self-Management’ as well as a deep-dive into artificial intelligence, its benefits and flaws
Two of the groups with the best business prototypes had the opportunity to present progress reports on how much money they had collectively invested, how much they spent on resources, overhead costs and how much profit they were able to generate after two months of sales. With hand-embroidered bangles, resin trays and clocks as well as different kinds of jewelleries, the team that went by the name Creative Creations stood out as the best performer for the team-building and entrepreneurship workshop
Neelanjana Rakshit, an 18-year-old first-year student from Women’s Christian College, was awarded the prize for ‘Outstanding Leadership’. ‘We had to conduct seminars on psychology, nutrition, AI, cyber security, business and finances. We learnt a lot and had to implement it in our tasks. My favourite workshop was the first one where we were taught to hold seminars. I overcame my stage fright because of that.’ she told My Kolkata. ‘I tried my best to work with everyone and tried to initiate the conversations. Being recognised by our mentors as a good leader was really an honour’
Among the participants, many others won awards for Best Community Organiser, Most Punctual, Best Team Player, Best Communicator and the Well Rounded Participant. After almost a year of knowing each other, the participants turned into a community and to end the beautiful programme that not only empowered them but brought them closer. ‘Before I attended the workshop I was very confused and scared on how to talk to different individuals. I could never express myself but thanks to these workshops, I have gotten over that fear and now, I can speak openly and express my feelings,’ said Priti Kumari Shah
‘Everytime I thought I couldn't do something, the mentors pushed me and I discovered how much I am actually capable of and how much we women can achieve if we want something,’ said one of the participants. Another participant admitted that she was initially scared and didn’t know who to talk to. ‘After this beautiful experience, I can say that I have made a lot of good friends and I will miss seeing you all on a regular basis. The workshops helped me overcome my fear and I understand myself better now’