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20 Grassroots Women to Receive Fellowship Awards at Unnati Global Forum
Unnati Global Forum 2018, scheduled to be conducted on May 25, 2018, at The Orchid Hotel Pune, is a platform that shines a light on the many achievements of rural women and the change they have inspired in their communities. With Dr. R.A. Mashelkar as the Guest of Honor, this year’s Unnati Forum will highlight the need for cross-collaboration to strengthen the existing ecosystem of women networks. It will be an experience of the power of grassroots women leaders from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The Forum will also have the Unnati Fellowship Awards for Women Changemakers where 20 women leaders will be given financial aid and mentoring to implement their solutions to the challenges they have identified in their communities. These Fellows have been identified through an extensive selection process. From 200 applicants, 50 were selected through desk review and field visits. Out of this 50, 30 applicants were shortlisted through a jury. The final 20 were selected through an expert panel.
The objective of Unnati Fellowship Awards for Women Changemakers is to support grassroots women leaders to transform their dreams into reality, while creating an opportunity to eradicate the existing challenges in a community. With delegates from across the globe participating in the Forum, it encourages cross collaborations between corporates and women networks.
“My initiative intends to increase life expectancy through spreading awareness about cancer and other illnesses,” says Sheetal Jagdale from Solapur, who has been selected for the Unnati Fellowship award. Healthcare is not readily available in Barshi, where Sheetal is from, and she plans to cover 400 women and children in her initiative. Women’s health is still an area that needs enormous improvement in rural India and is a global issue.
Priyanka Pasle from Osmanabad, who has also been selected for the Fellowship Award, wishes to change the life of widows. Being a community leader, she plans to train women in sewing ready-made garments. “I wish to provide skilled and talented widows the opportunities they lack to become self-reliant,” says Priyanka.
The selected rural women will go through a specially designed Unnati Leadership Program, which will focus on self-empowerment, understanding and planning their journey as Changemakers.
By tapping the power of rural women as farmers and entrepreneurs in water-scarce and climate-threatened regions, SSP has opened up non-traditional livelihood incomes, tripled household earnings, and built new leadership and governance in remote and excluded areas. By enhancing the women’s social, economic, and political competencies, and by mainstreaming them into development processes, SSP has grown these women into a formidable army of changemakers.
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