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From the President’s desk |
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It is my proud privilege to be here with you on this momentous occasion, when All India Women’s Education Fund Association (AIWEFA) is celebrating its Platinum Jubilee Year. In 1929, seventy-five years ago AIWEFA was started by a small group of enthusiasts who were the stalwarts of society; the leaders of the women’s movement in Delhi and members of the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC). AIWC expanded at a phenomenally exponential rate to encompass various other issues relating to women and is a well-known organization today with branches all over India where they are actively pursuing developmental goals for the empowerment of women. AIWEFA, retained its secretariat within the precincts of Lady Irwin College and committed itself to making Lady Irwin College an outstanding institute of home science for women, by donating it’s land to the Lady Irwin College Society, and affiliating it to the Delhi University, thereby making a women’s college par excellence, which today hardly needs any introduction. The Lady Irwin College has become a byword in the sphere of home science, not only in Delhi, but worldwide. Students of this college hold key positions in society as educationists, nutritionists in hospitals, hotels, health resorts, designers of repute and entrepreneurs, to name a few. Three-quarters of a century cannot pass without its ups and downs; tremendous achievements as well as failures, the thrill of success and the pain of heartaches. The story of AIWEFA is no different. But, and I can say this with confidence, none of us has ever looked back. We have always marched forward addressing issues affecting women; espousing causes where we have striven for greater justice, fairness and equality in society, through education and empowerment. Today the challenges before us are different. For the past eleven years since I have been associated with the organization, I am happy, that thanks to the interest taken by all our members, leaders, advisors and well wishers, AIWEFA has taken a tremendous leap forward. Even after all these years, AIWEFA functions from a single set of rooms within the college premises with a minimal staff, administering to the responsibilities of the secretariat. This has been a deliberate measure for maximum utilization of available funds at the grassroot level. However we now feel a crying need for a more organized work space, where we can recruit specially trained people to continue with our ongoing and new projects by going in for new premises of our own. The goals, the aspirations, the agenda, the programs, the initiatives taken and the responses we received have made us an organization that has emerged out of the shadows into one that has gained recognition on it’s own as a performance-oriented NGO working for the upliftment of marginalized women and children in all sectors.  AIWEFA has been working with the help of the government and the corporate sector in training village women in literacy, water conservation, sanitation, sustainable development and income generation
AIWEFA has been working with the government and corporate sector to bring about computer literacy in children in primary schools
AIWEFA has had great opportunities to hold workshops and seminars with other NGO’s with similar areas of interest
AIWEFA has got ECOSOC special status as an NGO which is working for developmental goals
AIWEFA has instituted the Stree Ratna Award for women achievers
AIWEFA has instituted the Nina Sibal Award for NGOs working with children with special needs
AIWEFA has organized health and nutrition camps
AIWEFA brought out a directory of all NGO’s working throughout India
AIWEFA has conducted legal awareness camps in schools and in rural areas to fight for the rights of women and children
AIWEFA has been made the UN-NGO-IRENE Regional Coordinating Organization for the least developed countries of South Asia for the period 2003-2005.
It has been a long and uphill task. The affiliation with Lady Irwin College can be compared to a mother hen protecting it’s offspring from the exigencies of circumstances. Today the protection has to extend to a new group of women and lead them to economic self sufficiency and awareness of their social rights. With this end in view we have several ongoing programs in the outlying villages, where for over two years work has been in progress. We have moved on to areas such as: - Helping to organize self-help groups
Helping members of groups to open bank accounts
Encouraging members of groups to take loans to start their own business
Teaching basic adult literacy
Providing tailoring and other vocational training courses
Teaching computer literacy
Giving tuition to weaker students
Organizing health and eye camps for villagers
Youth entrepreneurship training programs
Sanitation
Nutrition camps with help of Food & Nutrition Board.
We have been conducting seminars and workshops throughout the year in celebration of our 75th Anniversary; our topic for these celebrations on 22nd and 23rd March is: “The Impact of Science and Technology in Reducing Drudgery for Women in Housework”. Not only has home science opened up new avenues of income generation for women, advances in technology has provided women with more time to devote to work other than housework, besides simplifying it to such an extent that many men are now willing to share in the housework. At this time we are also pleased to announce the AIWEFA Plainum Jubilee award to an organization/person who has worked towards improving health and sanitary conditions in the country. The future should be bright if we can maintain our agenda and work towards the specific goals that we want to achieve. To continue with AIWEFA’s growth and participation in national and international arenas for bringing women and children’s issues to the forefront we have chalked out a plan for sustainable growth in rural areas and expansion of AIWEFA’s base. Our agenda includes, Strengthen the links between AIWEFA, AIWC, Lady Irwin College Society and Lady Irwin College to take Women’s formal education to different dimensions
Converting ECOSOC special status to general status
Extend our activities to have regional/global reach
Work on selected projects which will help us to extend the boundaries of our activities
Make our adopted village projects “model villages” in terms of development, economic growth, health, hygiene and sanitation, essentially making them dynamic entities
Continue to uplift women and work towards teaching them to be self reliant
Achieve the MDGs in our adopted villages and share our success stories with others
I thank you all: colleagues, friends, well-wishers, collaborators and donors for your support without which we could not have come this far, nor could we hope to plan for the next seventy-five years. Ranjini Sen President, AIWEFA |
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