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“Woman has been gifted with all vital knowledge in capsules by Nature. So she should feel privileged to lead her own way in life, be it personal or professional,” said veteran actor Sushma Seth as the Guest Speaker in the second SMILE-Springboard Women’s Development Programme in New Delhi.
Smile Foundation, in partnership with British Council’s Springboard programme, has initiated its Women Development Programme in New Delhi. The programme has a series of Capacity Building Workshops for working women in development and allied sectors.
There were 32 participating women professionals from various fields like NGO, Colleges, Schools, Journalism, Health (Doctors), Central Government Departments etc.
“For a woman, responsibilities and challenged could come three ways. It can be by choice, can be trust upon you or it can also be Karmic. One needs to take care of it in a positive and cheerful way to come out winner,” opined Sushma Seth.
She added, “A woman has to take care of her physical, emotional as well as intellectual needs to be contented. While facing a challenge, be it personal, familial or professional; by being calm at the moment of crisis a woman can find the solution and answer.”
The objectives and topics of the workshops are enhancing skills and information to take control of life is one of the major objectives of the workshop. The focus areas of workshop include Confidence Building, Conflict Resolution, Self-awareness, Motivation, Balancing Home and Work, Managing one’s Image, Cultivating Assertiveness and Setting Goals.
The programme has an initial series of four workshops. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. Kiran Bedi, DG, Home Guards & Civil Defence, with the first workshop on January 14, 2006. Today’s was the second workshop. The remaining workshop days are March 11 and March 25, 2006.
Dr. Neerja Chand and Ms. Arpana Ruth from Springboard are the trainers for the series of workshops.
Smile Foundation is a development organization which works in 11 Indian states viz. – Rajasthan, Orissa, Maharastra, UP, Uttranchal, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir – in the fields of quality & special education and health for less privileged children, women’s empowerment, disaster management and advocacy etc. Today Smile reaches directly to over 45,000 children and strives to cover one million children in the next five years.
Springboard is a Women Development Programme from British Council. It is the winner of the 1994 UK National Training Award for “Quality and Excellence”. Springboard, the training and development programme, has specifically been devised for organisations and institutions that are committed to help their women employees gain their full potential.
“Empowering a woman leads to a balance society. Because, she will not only raise a family and children – the future generation – but also make a valuable contribution professionally,” said Ms. Anupama Puri Kalra, Chief Programs Officer, Smile Foundation.
“Smile Foundation is already running a programme named Swabhiman in which we teach self-defence, awareness and capacity building training workshops for women in the communities. Soon we will take it to colleges and corporate. This effort with Springboard is a part of the attempt in empowering women,” said Sapna Kulshreshta, Head of Swabhiman Programme, Smile Foundation.
