Women’s Empowerment Committee : In Action

The Women’s Empower ment Committee, Chaired by Arin Mster and Dr. Rajeev Narvekar, was formed last year as a collaborative effort by a handful of members who believed it was time to put into action initiatives which created an understanding of women’s issues, offered solutions to women for health and sanitation and increased the overall well-being of women. Last year, after the representatives of Rescue Foundation spoke to our Club, we visited their rescue homes at Kandivli and Boisar, where they housed rescued young girls and women who were being trafficked. As an initial step the Committee supplied the homes with food, grains, oil and rice, indigenously made sanitary napkins and medicines for HIV patients. In fact, the Committee even offered to put up a plant to indigenously manufacture sanitary napkins and to train their staff to use the machines so that they could not only save on expenses, but so that it could also be a source of income by marketing sanitary napkins to nearby localities and villages.

A “train the trainer” programme by Population First saw a few of the Committee members being trained to conduct programmes on gender sensitisation. The first workshop was held by the trained Rotarians for the Bhavishya-Yaan students at the Colaba School. The Women’s Empowerment Committee : In Action Committee managed to open the minds of not only the girls who faced gender discrimination, but also of the young boys who learnt about how important their roles were in the path to equality. This Rotary Year has been no different. The renovation of a “free clinic” began at the end of July and is expected to be fully operational by mid-September. The clinic will offer gynaecological, paediatric, dental and general medical services.

A free and/or low-cost pharmacy will also be available for the women and children This will be a tie-up with the International Women’s Association, an organisation which has been running a charitable clinic for over 65 years for underprivileged women and children. The hope is that the renovation will increase the number of patients currently availing of the services and to broaden the scope of services currently being offered in an atmosphere which feels safe, comfortable, clean and financially viable. Dr. Rajeev Narvekar and Dr. Aashish Contractor have been instrumental in sourcing equipment, volunteer doctors and assistants, while Samir Chinai has been doing a great job of designing and renovating the clinic. Freyaz Shroff, Purnima Sheth and Framroze Mehta continue to make valuable contributions to the project. We would be remiss if we did not mention the instrumental role of support, guidance and vision that President Dr. Sonya Mehta has played in the creation and forward moving momentum of the Committee.

The Committee is also in the process of setting up an X-ray facility at the clinic. Once completed, the clinic will service women and children in need. In an effort to deepen the scope of services offered by our Rotary Club, services will also be offered to our Bhavishya-Yaan children, their parents and children from our Vocational and Night Study Centres. The Women’s Empowerment Committee has also delved into maintenance and building of toilets primarily for women. At present the maintenance of toilets at the Asiatic Library is being done. Priyasri Patodia and Natasha Treasurywala are currently working on the logistics of building public conveniences at Machimaar Nagar at Cuffe Parade and/or renovating existing toilets at Sassoon Docks. On August 26 and 27, our very own Rotaryanns Zarina Mehta, Arnaz Soonawalla and Meher Poonawala conducted a dynamic and engaging gender sensitisation programme for 150 women enrolled in the Vocational Training programmes at the YMCA. The workshops were so well received that the participants spilled into the hallways just so that they could be part of the seminar. The attendees ranged from 18 to 25 years of age.

Returning to the very interesting sessions over a period two days on personal hygiene and women’s issues for underprivileged women of our Agripada Vocational Training and Night Study Centres, the response was overwhelming and the participants were keen to now have a gynaecology camp and our Rotaryanns are well on the way to organise one. The topics covered at sessions were included adolescent, physical and mental changes, the importance of hygiene, urinary and reproductive tract infections, anaemia and its prevention, cervical cancer, the importance of life skills, how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and how different diseases could affect them. Our Rotaryanns described the experience as a heart-warming one. The key Rotary fundamentals of creating breadth of service have begun to be embodied with the Women’s Empowerment Committee having partnered both our Bhavishya-Yaan and Vocational/ Night Study Centre Committees. Additionally, the Committee is also successfully working with both Rotarians, Rotaryanns and our Partners in Service such as the YMCA.