Empower Future Leaders from Mumbai Red-Light Areas

How did you spend your Valentine’s Day? Do you want know how we spent ours? We spent it cheering on our revolutionary Sheetal who became the star of the day as she spoke at the One Billion Rising event in Mumbai!

For more about the One Billion Rising campaign, click here:http://www.onebillionrising.org/pages/about-one-billion-rising.  

Sheetal shares her feelings and experience : “When Robin asked all of us about speaking at One Billion Rising I thought for a minute and then said that I want to talk about my mother and the violence she has faced. Robin said, ‘Okay, that’s great, write down what you are going to talk about.’ She was happy because I volunteered without any coaxing and this was the first time that I was going to talk in front of so many people. When I saw the crowd I became afraid because I was thinking about what people would say when they came to know that my mother is a sex worker and that I am going to talk about the struggles she faces. Would they listen to me? My body was shaking when they announced my name. I thought I’d be blank but when I started I felt encouraged. In the middle I started crying because I was missing my mother, but I was surprised by crowd who were shouting and encouraging me. I felt really happy. There are people who want to hear about my mother and the thousands of mothers like my mother. I gave this speech because I wanted to talk about sex workers. I wanted people to know about problems sex workers are facing and dealing with every minute of their lives. It was an exciting and very important experience. I am glad that I finally spoke about what I had wanted to for ages.” 

Watch Sheetal Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppbCCu16Fho 

Everyone here at Kranti was really happy for Sheetal. She went ahead and did what she wanted to do without being stopped by obstacles. Now it is your turn! If you have anything to do or say then just do it—now! Don’t wait until the last moment.

Last week I attended two conferences which were about how technology can help NGOs. The first conference was Connect IT: Social Media and Cloud organized by the NASSCOM Foundation and the second was Tech Camp, Mumbai, where we got the opportunity to partner with the Blue Ribbon Movement and connect to many people. It was all surprising for me because I never thought of technology helping NGOs in so many ways. I attended these conferences with Kranti’s staff.

Nowadays we Krantikaris (Revolutionaries) are attending Akanksha’s Service Learning Program sessions as part of Kranti's new partnership with Akanksha SLP (see link below for more information).  We Krantikaris and Akanksha’s change makers went to Borivali National Park to learn more about the environment. I wasn’t with them when they visited the park but I was there when they were discussing issues and the things they saw. I was sad and jealous that they learnt so many things that I missed. Now I am not missing any sessions and will tell you that these are the most interesting classes; we talk, we share, we discuss, and we learn new ideas. 

Links:

• Revolutionary Sheetal speaks at One Billion Rising, Mumbai
• Learn More About Akanksha's Service Learning Program