Team has become stronger and wider with more sustainable projects.
Soroptimist International is a worldwide non-governmental organisation for women started in 1921 by a group of 80 women in Oakland to work for the benefit of underprivileged women and girls across the world.
The Madurai chapter inaugurated in 2009 is the 16th Soroptimist Club in India and the second one in Tamil Nadu after Chennai. The Indian branches of SI are affiliated to the U.K. body and started with its headquarters in Pune 15 years ago.
SI Madurai has 30-odd members from Madurai, Sivakasi, Dindigul and Rajapalayam. Belonging to various professions and different walks of life, they all have joined hands to be the reason behind someone’s smile. In a fast living world of today, spotting people with service mind has become sporadic. But organisations like these are living up to bridge the gap of humanity.
Latha Abiruben in her tenure executed various useful projects for the people of Madurai. Her environment friendly project yielded good response from the public. The best picks from the previous year include, ‘save earth’ marathon, mega organic expo, distribution of go green stickers and the various awareness campaigns for women. “I still get calls from people with queries about organic farming. The expo helped to open up the minds of people to transform their lives into a healthy living” says the former president.
For this year, Sangeetha Ranjith Soundarajan too has useful projects in her bucket list. She plans to give priority to projects on hygiene and grooming and ‘educate to lead’ as she feels these would be of immense benefit to women and children.
Her immediate project will include the celebration of mother’s day. She plans to either join with smokeless stove of SI Kodaikanal or provide food and apparels to Aishwarya Trust for the poor. Other big project include the celebration of environment day on June 5, by adopting ‘Myawaki method of planting trees’ under SI Madurai’s on-going project ‘green umbrella’. These trees would be planted in government lands, parks, schools and colleges with prior consent. The team will also continue the good work on taking ‘good touch and bad touch’ sessions to schools in remote villages like Andipatti, Usilampatti and Kallikapan to name a few. Schools under their on-going project ‘fistful of grains’ will extend their reach of giving grains to the needy people in Mangulam, Thirumangalam, Burma colony, Anbagam. Talks are also on to execute ‘Thaneer Sevai’ method where school students will drop their leftover water in a big drum, which would be later used for watering plants in school premises.
First generation students in colleges will be selected for a grooming and training session on attitude and etiquettes in August. It may also include a lingerie fitting session. A Young Soroptimist club will also be formed in these colleges, according to Sangeetha.
In September hygiene initiatives would be undertaken with the distribution of hygiene kits containing sanitary pads, anti-lice medicines and herbal products in villages of Kalikappan, Karumparai and Usilampatti to begin with. This will also be followed with sessions on using natural products and free medical camp for women.
A session on self-employment opportunities for abused women is slated for November. “This particular project requires a lot of support from professionals because training abused women is not an easy task. Self-sustaining small scale industry projects and support from doctors, psychologist, police, lawyers and a wider group is what we are looking at,” explains the new president.
During the installation ceremony, as a part of SI Madurai scholarship fund for empowerment through education (SIMFEE) Lakshmi Murugesan gifted Rs.13,900 to Yoga Priya, a student of college of social science. Sangeetha Ranjith Soundarajan donated Rs.15,500/- to spastic child Sangeetha from able school towards her fee, uniform and callipers.
The other new team members are Chitra Ganapathy as the vice president, Roopa Mahesh as secretary and Jayanthi Raja as the treasurer.