Empower Young Women to be Leaders, India

Since 2002, Women’s Education Project (WEP) has invested in women, because when young women graduate from 12th grade, child marriage is virtually eliminated.  When they are well employed, they improve their families health and standard of living. When they are confident and informed, their voices are heard.

100% of WEP's over 3,650 Leadership Academy graduates have finished their secondary education. They know the power of their voices, and employed in careers of their own choosing, are making significant lasting change in their own lives and communities.

This spring, at our Leadership Academy in Hyderabad, students celebrated International Women’s Day by holding sessions based on the UN Women’s 2024 theme, “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress.”  Director Esther Subhashini opened the sessions providing background on UN research and its 2024 call to action. A counselor followed with a discussion on how to identify types of violence against women and children, responses to violence, and accessing laws and community resources. Several alumnae shared their WEP experience and discussed their careers in accounting, marketing, and fashion promotion. Students ended the day in a lively debate about their own commitment to accelerating progress for women.

At WEP's Leadership Academy in Madurai, students and alumnae celebrated their own history during Women's History Month, by gathering Academy Alumnae of the past 20 years. Three 2002-2006 alumnae, Lavanya, Karpagam and Radha (pictured below) joined the reunion. All alumnae were asked to come back to the Academy to inspire and support the current WEP students.

Below are two of the many inspiring updates we heard from our Alumnae: 

     Prasanna, a Madurai Leadership Academy alumna, joined WEP in 2008 during her undergraduate studies, and received a Next Steps scholarship to complete her degree. Prasanna pursued her postgraduate degree in Economics and earned a Ph.D. from MK University. Currently, she is conducting research on employment potential in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) receiving companies in Tamil Nadu, with a focus on analyzing the socio-economic conditions of their employees. Prasanna is also an 11-12th grade economics teacher at a Matriculation School in Chennai and runs SRI Enterprise. Recently, she received a teaching award from her school, following 100% of her students passing their exams.

     Lavanya joined the WEP community in 2002, and studied Sociology at both the undergraduate and post-graduate levels on WEP scholarships. Using her degrees and interest in computers, Lavanya worked as a WEP program manager and taught basic computer and desktop publishing classes. She later used these skills as a magazine designer at the Gandhi Museum. Married with two teenage sons, Lavanya has continued to learn new skills, including dehydrating fruits and vegetables and making soaps and candles. She has recently  started her own business selling home-made products using pure, all-natural ingredients, with no added chemicals. 

     In October 2023, Lavanya dove into the world of competitive sports, including weightlifting, for which she won a Silver medal in Chennai and Para-Sitting Volleyball, for which her team won third place and a cash prize at a state-level competition. Lavanya is hoping to play across India, having been selected as one of twenty women players for a national-level competition camp. Lavanya shared "I feel like a new entrepreneur now and am achieving something in life. I hope that other students in the WEP program will also do something special in their lives. Thank you, my dear friends."  

Links:

• WEP Video