Empowering women and girls speeds up the process of sustainable development by promoting gender equality. Bringing an end to all forms of discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, but it also has a multiplier effect across all other development areas. According to the UN, 2020
We educated, taught, and nourished, through our efforts to Empowerment through Self Awareness – Leading to Self Esteem, through which we motivate them to learn and earn, thus making the grant received worthwhile and fortifying the women, their daughters, and families. As you know, poor Indian women have a very poor self-image and we worked on making them feel good and worthy of our appreciation and attention.
Women, disabled women and girls, are mothers from various backgrounds (who were/had unemployed spouses, ill, alcoholics, or other reasons). CREST helps to build their self- esteem, skills-level and confidence. After re-equipping them through personality development, they are given a chance to enter the Learn & Earn project.
We initially recruited only physically challenged women who cut disposable sheets, which were then sold to the medical care units. Then the focus grew into developing self-esteem and simple skills in Craft Making whose benefits are visible to the women who made them & so they Learn and Earn. The mothers of our Girl Child Education, and other women from the community became part of the Learn and Earn initiative. Once they enable themselves to stand up, they in turn helped the others bloom. Bank accounts were also opened for women in this project.
Items made by the women emphasizing the value of recycling was made clear to the women and the idea of waste management. Cushion & pillow covers from cut pieces of waste cloth (blouses etc), Wool wall hangings, Baby clothes, Decorative candles and diyas, Patchwork – tablecloth – recycled, Simple embroidered handkerchiefs, Rugs from recycled strips and jute, Gift boxes & little gift bags, Krest kleen disinfectant, Hi protein nutritious milk drink.
The Women came from Byappanahalli, Ramaswamy Palya, Dooravani Nagar, Bagalur, Kothanur, Nagawara, Hennur Bande, Ramamurthy Nagar slums. Some of the mothers have started their own business after learning from CREST and are doing very well. Tailoring machines were donated to individually for mothers as a business start up.
As it is well known all over the world the Human Development Index of the Indian Woman is extremely low, and it was an endeavour of CREST to improve this.
Awareness programs on Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs, HIV/AIDS, Health, were organized regularly in the slums. Topics on Sexual Health Aspects, Problems, Reproductive Health Care- abortion, human sexuality, etc. awareness were given on these issues. Legal aid and legal awareness programs were also arranged.
Working towards Right Values in areas of Holistic Health – Physical, Social, Spiritual, Mental and Emotional Personalities was our keyword in our regular monthly Mahila Belavanika Meetings.
CREST constituted a Sub-Committee with Prof. Usha Kumar, Dean of Women's Studies, Mount Carmel College, our first program was called "Bonding with the Have Not's" with girls & staff from the Home Science Department, who interacted with our mothers and showed them a way how to empower themselves and the mothers. This was made into a monthly effort, and the same was conducted in other colleges. It was an Eye Opener for the girls who have never experienced poverty.
We started helping the Aged Women in the neighboring areas since early 2010, keeping in mind the vulnerability of these women. There hasn't been much change in the violence faced by the older community in the last decade. Latest, report in the Hindustan times reveals even during the pandemic most elderly must depend in family care making them vulnerable and some reported that they were mistreated, abused and harassed within their families. Among the worst affected are the elderly women due to their poor financial status, increased level of dependency and due to longer lifespan compared to elderly men.
