The world faces many challenges, but amidst the adversity, incredible women rise as beacons of hope. The SABERA Awards (Social and Business Enterprise Responsible Awards) recognize these changemakers for their outstanding contributions to society. As nominations open for SABERA 2024, let’s celebrate some of the remarkable women honored in recent years:

1. Brinda Poornpragna: Championing Education Equity

Brinda PoornPragna, CEO of eVidyaloka Trust and a SABERA Awardee, understands the critical role education plays in empowering underprivileged communities. Her social enterprise leverages technology to bridge the gap in quality education, making it accessible even in remote areas.

2. Sugandha Sukrutaraj: Empowering Adults with Disabilities

Sugandha Sukrutaraj, founder of AMBA and a SABERA Awardee and Ashoka Fellow, is an inspiration. With 19 years of experience, she’s crafted a sustainable livelihood solution for adults with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Her program focuses on visual data entry and peer training, fostering mainstream inclusion and empowering individuals.

Read about more women changemakers awarded by SABERA over the years here >>

3. Jyotika Dhawan: A Journey of Inclusion

Jyotika Dhawan’s story is one of dedication and growth. A 2023 SABERA awardee, Jyotika’s passion for inclusion has been a constant force. From receiving recognition in 2018 to winning the award in 2023, she’s consistently pushed boundaries for diversity and equity in workplaces.

4. Iram Maimuna: Superhero for our Planet

Iram Maimuna, Managing Director of E-Waste Social Pvt Ltd., is a champion for environmental responsibility. Her company connects businesses with responsible e-waste recyclers, tackling the growing problem of electronic waste and its impact on our planet.

5. Chandini Di: Voice of the Streets

Chandini Di’s story is one of resilience. Once a young girl living on the streets, she overcame poverty and hardship to become a powerful voice for underprivileged children. Through her NGO Voice of Slum, Chandini Di empowers street children and works towards a brighter future for her community.

6. Dr. Sudha Kidao: Shaping Educational Landscapes

Dr. Sudha Kidao, a SABERA Awardee and Honorary Managing Trustee of the Foundation For Excellence India Trust has dedicated over a decade to shaping education in India. Through her service as both a donor and volunteer, she’s played a crucial role in improving educational opportunities across the country.

7. Meera Shenoy: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Meera Shenoy, a SABERA Awardee and the founder of youth4jobs (Y4J), is a recognized changemaker. Y4J has become the largest organization in South Asia mainstreaming youth with disabilities in education and employment. Through her work, Meera has impacted millions of lives, empowering youth with disabilities and their families.

These are just a few examples of the extraordinary women honored by SABERA. Their dedication, passion, and resilience inspire us all. By supporting their missions and spreading awareness about their work, we can join hands in creating a lasting impact and building a brighter future.

Stay tuned for more inspiring stories of SABERA awardees!

Do you know a woman making a significant difference in the world? Encourage them to apply for the SABERA Awards and help us celebrate their achievements. Let’s continue to shine a light on the incredible women creating a more just and equitable world.

Nominate a Changemaker for SABERA 2024

The post Extraordinary Women Making a Difference appeared first on Woman Endangered.

The fervor started with Birlasoft Limited’s request to address their employees of all genders talking about ‘Womanhood: The walks of her life on March 3rd. The session was a part of their employee engagement outreach. The session saw accomplished panelists including a clinical psychologist, Puroitree Majumdar, talking about unconscious biases. Yukti Kapoor Mehndiratta, Founder SBY Academy, and Richa Singh, CEO of Yourdost spoke about breaking the glass ceiling and recognizing unique challenges faced by women respectively. The session was attended by over 70 employees of the listed company. WE spoke about the balance internally that translates to a balance outwardly. The Yin – Yan , Purush – Prakriti or Shiv-Shakti. All propound the importance of balance and equal importance to all genders and the unique strengths that complement each other to make a whole.

Scope, a social impact company based in Helsinki, Finland identified women from across the world that choose to challenge and recognized them on their blog as well as social media platforms. It was a proud moment for me to be featured with 3 other ladies from Kenya doing phenomenal work in Gender inclusion and diversity. Merci Korir is a doctor and health journalist addressing biases in the media, Carol Nag’anga’ is a cervical cancer survivor and runs an initiative for other women cancer survivors and Narima Waka works extensively in 10 countries with women and youth engagement and informing them on the importance of political participation Here is a link to the blog.

Outlook publishers reached out for a panel discussion and I was again humbled to be in the august company of some amazing women. Reena Raju is a heart transplant recipient and continues to be an athlete, now also inspiring and facilitating other transplant recipients. Alka Pande is a well-known art curator, author, and historian. Shikha Sharma is a Co-producer, who among other films has also Co-produced Shakuntala Devi and Toilet Ek prem Katha. Here is a link to the discussion that was moderated by Lachmi Debroy, asst editor Outlook.

There was also a recorded interaction with Smita Kulkarni of stonesoup.in (where WE source our menstrual cups for gifting to marginalised women – this takes care of their feminine hygiene for upto 10 years). The recordings delieated the things we choose to challenge – also the theme for this woman’s day.

And finally, WE took the opportunity to take a menstrual hygiene session enabling the enabler – working with 30 teachers of Arpana trust – imparting them information to choose to challenge a negative mindset around periods. So what did you #Choosetochallenge?

The post Women’s day 2021 appeared first on Woman Endangered.

Sushma Aggarwal, an octogenarian, is a source of inspiration and a force to reckon with herself. She shared her tryst with serving the marginalised through Arpana trust which was founded in 1962.

Mrs. Shroff, Mrs.Seth, and Mrs Sushma Agarwal were 3 friends who wanted to contribute to Arpana trust and started working in a slum with 20 children in Indira camp, Delhi for half a day. After 10 years of work, the slum was to be broken, and they realized that with the relocation, all the hard work may dissipate with the education of the children coming to a halt. Sushma Aggarwal says ‘We went to the slum commissioner and requested for an alternate area where these families could be shifted. The commissioner was familiar with our work and was impressed with the dedication of us old ladies and shifted the 200 families to the molarband area’ . This is where the ‘Basti Vikas Kendra’ with 100 children started. Now there are a total of 1500 hundred children receiving education both in pre-school as well as through tuition support. For older girls who are not very educated or school dropouts, there are beauty culture, tailoring, and craft classes conducted, to enable them to get jobs or work from home as per their individual requirements. The main focus remains, making the girls economically independent.

‘Most of the teachers with Arpana trust have worked for over 10- 15 years including Kalpana Maam, Saroj Maam and Nabneeta Maam. They help imbibe Arpana’s ethos of selfless service, love and affection for the children’ Sushma Aggarwal added.

It was with these teachers , enabling the children of molarband at the Basti Vikas Kendra , that I conducted the #LetsTalkPeriod session virtually. Enabling the enabler 🙂

The session lasted for close to 3 hours – while the workshop itself is for 2 hours, the feedback and interaction of the participants, sharing their stories is always the highlight in each session. Here is some of the feedback along with some artworks imbibing the lesson. The best one stands to win a stonesoup.in menstrual cup worth Re. 945.

‘It was an amazing session, this subject needs to be discussed more and males should also be involved in this kind of session.’

‘Good for us and future generations how to fight with period problems.’

‘बहुत अच्छा था बसे तो हम सब ये बाते जानते हैं बस खुलेआम इस बारे मे बात नही करते जो करना बहुत ज़रूरी है’

‘The session was very informative and helpful. I Learnt and got know about good and fact full knowledge about periods other than myths.’

If you work or run a non profit school in a marginalised segment, I would be happy to conduct this session on periods with your school Free of cost. Drop me a mail on womanendangered@gmail.com or suparnaa@simplysuparnaa.com and lets make the most through the new normal.

Everybody bleeds so LETS TALK PERIOD!

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