Delhi, 8th May 2023: To support girl child education and skill development, Rotary India Literacy Mission has launched a joint initiative, a fund-raiser art exhibition for girl empowerment, with Chile of Embassy in India, The Blue Moon, Cosmo Art Gallery and the Indian Importers Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IICCI).
Dr Meenu Kumar, renowned artist and a Rotary member exhibited her artwork on women empowerment for the fundraiser. 50% of the collected funds by these artworks will be donated to Rotary India Literacy Mission (RILM) to finance the ‘Asha Kiran program’, an initiative that seeks to send 150,000 out of school children, between 7 to 14 years, back to school, with a special focus on increasing the literacy amongst girls and young women. These girls drop out of school due to various reasons like lack of sanitation at school, they’re engaged with construction work or forced into sex work, some also drop out due to constant migration. The objective of RILM is to bring these girls back to school under the Asha Kiran programme and give them an opportunity to get equity in the community, which can be achieved through education.
Rotary’s goal is to strengthen the capacity of communities to support basic education and literacy, reduce gender disparity in education, and increase adult literacy by supporting education for all children and literacy for children and adults.
Speaking on the initiative, H.E. Juan Ángulo, Ambassador of Chile to India said “the project is of great importance, as it perfectly embraces the two pillars of Chile’s foreign policy: Gender Equality and the promotion of Human Rights. In this sense, there is an interest in working together with Indian organizations on initiatives that allow us to work on joint projects to reduce the gender gap, which is a reality of both countries.“
Speaking at the occasion, Mr Kamal Sanghvi, Chairman Rotary India Literacy Mission said “Through collaboration with Embassy of Chile, The Blue Moon Magazine, Cosmos Art Gallery and the Indian Importers Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IICCI), RILM aims to get people excited to participate in activities like this which they will bring girl child back to school, get diplomats to come into the mainstream work of India and want to collaborate with artists to come on board with us and try to do more events like this whereby they also benefit. It’s everyone’s responsibility to give back to society and help bring a positive change in any way we can.”
Along with fundraising through the art exhibition, and with the support of the Blue Moon Magazine, the project also considers cultural activities to be to be carried out by the Embassy with schools linked to the Asha Kiran program, with which the project seeks to bring to 100 girls the message about the importance of education for their future empowerment in society.
A fresh and revitalising wave of “women’s wings” is being felt at the Art Exhibition fundraising for girl empowerment from 25 April to 11 May at the Embassy of Chile in India.
Speaking about the artwork, Dr. Meenu Kumar, Director, Cosmo Art Gallery said, “Each of the works highlights the idea of female empowerment, linked to freedom, which is symbolised in the different works through wings and lips. We have also highlighted the links between the two countries by incorporating colours and typical elements of both Chilean and Indian artworks.”
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Contact:
Jyoti Rai; +91 9650591553
Email Address: Jyoti.Rai@rotary.org