WMPP ACTIVITIES

Event:

The play ‘Untitled’ at Sophia College was sponsored by WMPP.

  Is the institution of marriage under threat? What can be done?

 An interactive session was held at TOI.  

  The launch of Women and Political Governance in collaboration with Times Foundation and WMPP

An Interfaith seminar was organized with Iqra Foundation

A Post Graduate Diploma course on conflict Resolution introduced at Jamia Millia University (with TF and TISS)

 The Jaagruti Sammelan hosted by Rajasthaani Mahila Mandal in collaboration with WMPP at the Chavan Hall on 28th February 2004

A Women's Empowerment session was held by Ms Suhaani Shah (Student of Mr. Kato) on Kempo Art of Self Defence in collaboration with the Group 21.

 A session where various ladies attended, was conducted by Ms Promila Gurtu, to learn how to help ourselves with the help of homeopathy. Of course tests were imperative for complicated ailments.

The consultations and medicines are provided free of cost.

 Preventive problems in health-care for youth.(Heart,Diabetes, Eye, Gynaec, Dental…)

An interactive session was held on   'Sexual harassment in the work place'

 Fastrack kids in  collaboration with WMPP held a session on ‘Appreciation of Music’

Anti-tobacco Drives was launched in various schools

A talk was held on the 31st of May 2005 (World Tobacco day)  at Bal Bhavan where 300 students participated.

What WMPP hopes to achieve within next 6 months (Aug 2005)

Setting up of Women Centers for the Empowerment of Women

Empowerment of women will be through Distressing the mind and Body by Yoga, Vipassana and Art of Living.

Empowerment through Health (Counseling and Counseling courses)

The target audience is girl students for both schools and colleges, teachers and non-teaching staff and parents.

Empowerment of women through career guidance course. Teaching English and Computer classes.

Preventive Health care for youth.

Legal Rights (Pending PILs in the Court)

Please click:

http://shacune.blogspot.com  for constant updates on activities...

For photographs click:

http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd169/shacune/WMPPTIMES/

WOMEN’S MOVEMENT FOR PEACE & PROSPERITY

Activities January to April 2008

Minutes of the Meeting of Trustees held on Wednesday,  April 23,  2008 at The Times of India Building,  Dr D N Road, CST, Mumbai 400 001 as per Notice dated 7th April, 2008.

 Chairperson welcomed the Trustees and explained that the work of bringing about Peace and Prosperity can be accomplished not only as a joint effort but also on an Individual effort. Trustees should join with other organizations to bring about harmony.  Chairperson then  apprised them of the recent developments and activities of the Trust:

 1) Chairman congratulated Trustee WMPP Sonal Sheth for running the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon for ‘Ummeed’

  So many kids and families go through suffering, a life is wasted, not helped to reach full potential only because of lack of awareness, or lack of facilities…

Sonal ran despite being diagnosed with a heart murmur 2 years ago.

2) Ms Leena Prabhoo, one of the Founder Trustees, WMPP, gave an Introductory talk of 'Catharsis of the Soul' urging members of the 'Celebrating Life' Group to get rid of the emotional garbage that we have accumulated over the years!

3) Chairman congratulated Ms Basanti Roy, the Vice Chairperson WMPP for showing her compassion in a unique way.

Basanti directed 17 year old Omkar Pimple an HSC examinee to the closest station when young Omkar suffered a panic attack as he was sure that he would not make it for his 11 am Sanskrit paper at an HSC Centre in Churchgate.

4) On the 12th January 2008 Times Foundation and Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity opened a Women Center at Anjuman Islam CST.  Shakun Narain spoke on Women and Peace...the guest of honour was Mr Mir Ranjan Negi. Former India Goalkeeper and Coach of India Hockey Team. (Chakde India starring Shah Rukh Khan was based on Mr Ranjan Negi's life story)

4) On Women's Day, March the 8th 2008, Times Foundation and Women's Movement for Peace an Prosperity celebrated the achievements of Times of India Group Women...Last year various leaders of NGOs were felicitated by Times...this year the leaders of those NGOs felicitated Women in Times.

 5) Shakun Narain and Aarti Hundalani Trustee, WMPP organized a Spiritual bhajan and lecture session to celebrate  Sankraanti and Holi.

  Trustees were satisfied with the performance and decided to enhance the Trust activities further. She also informed that WMPP Trustees in association with eminent personalities will be organizing regular programmes  under title ‘Eager To Be’ in near future, wherein the Trustees will make their valuable contributions within the framework of the Objectives of the Trust. The programmes will be conducted on 2nd Wednesdays of every month.

 As there were no other matters to be discussed, the Meeting was terminated with a Vote of thanks to the Chair.

WOMEN’S MOVEMENT FOR PEACE & PROSPERITY

 Activities April to June 2008

1)      On Aksaye Tritiya,7th of May 2008, a bhajan Kirtan was organized by Ms Aarti Hundalani at Ishwar Bhavan Temple, where the Hindi Edition of Dadi Nani ki Kahaani was blessed by Ms Shakun Narain’s nanand (Husband’s sister) Ms Indu G.Vee.

Akshaye Tritiya occurs on the third day of the bright  half of Vaisaakh.
Hindus, Buddhists, Jains celebrate this day.
'AKSHAYE' means 'that which does not diminish
Every minute of the three and a half days is considered sacred.
It is believed that Satya Yuga and Treta Yuga started on this day.
New beginnings like weddings, business ventures, new deals, new audit books, business trips are considered to bring luck. Ved Vyaasa dictated and Lord Ganesha started to write the Mahabharata.

 2)     Some time back trustees of Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity (WMPP)met a dainty dynamic lady (Ms Supriya Sule) who believes in making a difference through quality education. She likes to look into 'taking care' of the progress of children with special needs like dyslexia, autism...and also the running of self-help groups with a difference.

3)      Shakun Narain attended a 2 day Peace Circle Conference at Panchagani. This conference was hosted
by the Peace Circle, Initative of Change originally
known as MRA (Moral Re-armament)

The main facilitator was Jean Brown a lady from U.K married
to an Australian gentleman.

Jean was fascinated by our (Women's Movement for Peace and Prosperity) 'Gems of Faiths' talks and was particularly intrigued with the fact that different Faiths people spoke from the same platform...

It was also a wonderful experience as there were present for the conference, Tibetans, SouthKoreans, Russian, Tibet, Indians, from  Nagaland...and their striving for peace was very emotional!
Shakun also learned  what Peace really is and what makes peace and breaks peace...

 Some qualities of Peace Makers: Strong, Resilient, Forgiving, Loving, honest, faith, clarity of thought, empathetic, optimistic, sense of humour...

What are Peace Destroyers: Greed, selfishness, jealousy, lack of communication, prejudices, Non-forgiveness, hatred,dishonesty, revenge, bullying, disrespect, irresponsibility, hypocrisy, fears, anger, corruption, poverty, injustice, communal discord, war,history...

History cannot be unlived but if faced with courage it need not be lived again...
Angelou

Peace is when every person's need is being met...

Peace lives where compassion reigns...

The Peace Circle visited us at Times of India Building on the 1st Nov 2008

 On the 2nd of April 2008, a group from Times Foundation attended a conference on World Peace Harmony.
We were invited by Mr Somaiya at Faizullabhoy building.
I particularly enjoyed hearing Mr Jeffrey Armstrong's spirited speech on 'Appreciating and Understanding the Wisdom of the Vedas correctly'

Activities July to Sept 2008

Minutes of the Meeting of Trustees held on Saturday,  13th September,  2008 at The Times of India Building,  Dr D N Road, CST, Mumbai 400 001 as per Notice dated 28th August, 2008.

  Chairperson welcomed the Trustees and apprised them of the recent developments and activities of the Trust.

1)      Shakun Narain spoke on the Power of the Feminine at the Group 21

2)      Shakun gifted the Dadi Nani ki Kahaani at the Nana Nani Udyaan and also to the teachers of the Geeta Nagar Slum.

3)    Ms Uzma Naheed and Ms Seema Ansari were appointed as Trustees for a period of 3 years from 13th September, 2008. The proposals were brought forward by Managing Trustee and supported by all Trustees present.

 4) To promote Communal Harmony, the Trustees decided to bring out 1000 copies of the book  ‘Dadi Nani Ki Kahani’ authored by Chairperson and distribute it to school children free of cost .

MY DADI NANI KI KAHAANI IN URDU WAS RELEASED BY DR ABIDULLAH GHAZI (DIRECTOR IQRA) WHO STRONGLY SUPPORTS INTER RELIGIOUS LEARNING...

A MOMENTOUS DAY
SNDT 7th to 10th November 2008

IIWA (IQRA INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S ALLIANCE) WAS LAUNCHED
One of the purposes of IIWA is to highlight the right way to interpret the Quran.

 

Left: The Hindi Dadi Nani ki Kahaani being blessed by an elder Ms Indu Janki G. Vee(My nanand , husband's sister)

On the right my English Dadi Nani ki Kahani being released by Shri L.K.Advani and Ms Indu Jain...

These photographs feature under the Urdu version because they were released much earlier and have been exclusively mentioned on my website.

To read my book in English, Click:

http://www.dalsabzi.com/books/kids_kahaani/kahaani_intro.htm
To read it in Hindi, Click:http://www.dalsabzi.com/books/kids_kahaani/DNkk_Hindiscript.pdf
 

GREAT NEWS Nov 2008

Spreading goodness, peace and prosperity

1) Our Chairperson Emeritus and one of the founder members of WMPP, Ms Maya Shahani has been judged the country winner and an Extraordinary Lives Nominee from 5000 global members in the XL Foundation Family...

2) Ms Malika Oberoi, Trustee of WMPP has been given the position of Chairperson to Jan Shikshan Sansthan Sponsored by Ministry of HRD, Government of India...Earlier the Chairperson was Ms Bilkis Latif.

3) Leena Prabhoo: Regular lectures on Catharsis of the Soul.
  
4)Sonal Sheth: Took part in a Marathon Race to raise funds
 for under-priviledged.
  
5) Sunita Godbole: Ongoing activities on 'Right to
 Information'
 
6) Mallika Oberoi: Empowers slum children on a regular basis.
 Provides nourishment on ongoing basis.

Above: Malika organized a bhandara (Free meal) for the slumdwellers
  
7)Shakun and Aarti activity:
Empowering Women through Eager to B.
 Spritual kirtans and lectures on a regular basis
 

 8)Shakun
 Dadi Nani ki kahaani (Hindi)

Dadi Nani ki kahaani (Urdu)
 English Dadi Nani is going for a 3rd edition
Power of the Feminine (New book in the process)

9)Naina is providing psychosocial support to women and children at high risk in the metros and in the tsunami hit andaman islands.

Naina writes:
Shakunji and Mr Maheshwary we are with you please continue the great work.
Shakunji, I have been giving copies of the Urdu version of your book to schools here in Pune.
With warm regards to all at WMPP
Naina

10)Pratima writes:

Dear Shakun Ji,
This is to give you a little feedback on the
interaction that I had at the Navneet Community Center
in Bandra. This Center is part of the Holy Family
Hospital and there is a community of more than 50
women who are regularly empowered with vocational
training and health related issues. Very much like the
WMPP concept.

These women are very enthusiastic learners and were
extremely receptive to the knowledge transfer as we
discussed the various aspects of heart disease and
associated risk factors and ways to prevent.

Anjali writes:

Dear Shakun,

I am writing to advise you that after many years of working with Citi, I
 am moving to Harvard Business School next month. HBS has appointed me to be the Executive Director of their Centre in India, which they want to
 scale up dramatically as part of their new Global Initiative. This will
involve various facets of education, right from research to policy to
 publication ( case study generation from India )recruitment, placement,
 and executive education programs. It will also entail intensive
 interaction with Government, Industry, Academia and Alumni. The concept is
an Embassy for Harvard, bringing the best of Harvard to India, and taking
 the best of India to Harvard...

...I think each one of the WMPP women is forging ahead, in the areas which we are passionate about.
i am personally involved with issues of diversity and inclusion , and work across forums on the same topics...
Remember , we started WMPP as a movement...
Warm Regards,
Anjali

Maya writes:

Dear Shakun,

...Lately this is one of the things I have got totally involved with. The Clinton Global Initiative is by Invitation only, so it is a big honour. Hope I can fulfill the trust and faith they have in me...

Maya

 SEPT 10th 2008

Shakun spoke at Eager to B. Group on Ganesh Chaturthi

Sept 11th 2008

Shakun spoke on Quantum Memory at the Group 21

Sept 13th 2008

Mallika had a bhandaara at Lal Batti slum at Colaba, where MLA attended which Maya Shahani, Sunita and myself also attended…

Atta Girls, we are mighty proud of you!

  Please click:

http://shacune.blogspot.com  for constant updates on activities...

For photographs click:

http://s220.photobucket.com/albums/dd169/shacune/WMPPTIMES/