Monday, October 15, 2012

3 weeks of silence = 3 weeks of speaking out

Its been a while - 3 weeks to be precise - since I wrote anything. And that's because, I had been speaking, at the World Pulse Live tour that went on for slightly over 3 weeks (17th-9th) It is a tour organized by World Pulse - the US-based, world's largest women's media group. And the tour is for the three toppers of their Voice of the Future correspondent program. As one of those lucky three, I was there, participating at the 4 city (New York, Washington DC, Portland and Atlanta), 18 events tour, talking about the need and effectiveness of connecting grass root women through digital technology. Shared here are some of the highlights of what I would always remember as an epic tour!
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It happened on 8th of October. Suzanne Malveaux of Newsroom International interviewed me and my fellow World Pulse correspondent from Syria. Among other things (Infanticide, my work and my experience as an unwanted girl child), Suzanne asked me how digital technology could help stop killing of girl children in India. My answer was, by helping women quickly seek help when they were in a crisis situation, and also share their experiences directly with the global audience.  The same day, The Epoch Times also interviewed us and published this article later.


Before that, on Oct 3rd, I was at the US Department of State, discussing live on web, my own experience as an infanticide  survivor and how I believed in the  tremendous power to bring change in every single ordinary woman in India. Click here to listen to the entire talk

Among the other events in Washington DC was a roundtable discussion at John Hopkins university, organized by WomenThrive Worldwide - a development organization that presents ideas and opinions of women organizations to the policy makers in DC. Here, my focus was on how the use of digital technology can help women victims of climate change. I shared my personal experiences of working with women who were trafficked and forced into sex trade in southern India following a drought and crop failure. Later, Women Thrive Worldwide also interviewed us and published this article on their website.
The week before, I was at Portland, Oregon, which is also the headquarter of World Pulse. The biggest of the events here was held in the City Club. The event was live broadcast by the local radio station - KOPB 91.5 FM
Besides the City Club, I also spoke at the office of the Intel - the technology giant which is also a partner of World Pulse and a strong supporter of girls education worldwide. It was a memorable experience to have the top executives of Intel at the event which was live webcast.
Before going to Portland, I spoke at a number of events in New York City. The most exciting of them was the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). My focus was on the need of supporting organizations and programs that help bring women across the world together by giving them access to digital technology.
Before CGI, I was in New York University. The most memorable moment of this event was to meet Sai Kiran and Michelle Meloche, two World Pulse members who flew in all the way from Toronto and  California respectively, just to hear us speak. The power of community feeling in World Pulse is stronger than words can describe!


And this is where I started my speaking debut: at the UN. On 19th September, the office of Global Action to Prevent War and Armed Conflict hosted the event where I, along with my fellow World Pulse correspondents Hummingbird of Syria and Neema of Congo  spoke against use of digital technology to curb violence against women worldwide. The office later published this article on their website




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What an amazing journey. You are doing so much for women everywhere. Thank you.

Jennifer R.