Women’s Empowerment Commitee Update
One of the objectives of the Women Empowerment Committee is outreach. In August of this year 30 Rotaractors of HR College completed a 5-day training course on Gender Sensitisation conducted by Laadli/Population First. 23 Rotaractors successfully completed the program and are now beginning their outreach work in teams of 10 across municipal schools and other such similar institutions.
On November 11, 2017, the first set of trained Rotaractors, supervised by Rtn. Freyaz Shroff and R/Ptn. Rashna Cooper, conducted a session on Patriarchy at the Anjuman I Islam John Cassum Night School. The session was attended by 40 students (all boys) from the night school’s 8th, 9th & 10th standards. The students were engaged in role plays which included topics such as eve-teasing, domestic violence, dowry and peer pressure to tease or mistreat girls.
The three hour session was well received by the students and the teachers of the night school. The principal has invited the Rotaractors to return for another session and says that this work has given her a platform to open the discussion on gender related issues with her students.
This first outreach session also impacted the Rotaractors profoundly, as it exposed them to different processes of thought on women’s issues.
The Women Empowerment Committee hopes to also partner with other RCB programs to increase its outreach work.