Our W.L.P. volunteer Alessandro

Today we want to introduce you Alessandro - he will travel in June to Gulabgarh to visit our women from the Women's Literacy Project, get to know them and to work in the school (Himalyan Cultural School of Paddar).

This is very exciting: for us, for Alessandro and of course for our women.

Here's a short interview we had with him:

Name: Alessandro Bordoli

Age: 23

Coming from: Vero Beach, Florida, United States of America

But living at the moment in Spain; the reason:

Teaching English for a year at a School of Languages in Santiago de Compostela.

I finished my Bachelor’s Degree last year in Political Science and Economics at the University of Florida. My eventual plan is to go to law school (perhaps in the area of international law) and then politics, but I decided to take a few years off to see new places and experience new cultures before I settle into school and a career. My family is Italian and we visit our relatives every summer in Italy, so I have traveled extensively throughout Europe, and I have always valued international experience.

Occupation: Language and Culture Assistant – I teach about the culture of the United States as a supplement to the English courses offered at the school

Travel Dates:

Departure Date: June 5^th, 2013

Visit in Gulabgarh: June 8^th to June 15^th (about one week working at the school and helping Tashi)

Tashi picks me up in Srinagar and then takes me to Gulabgarh for one week.

What brought you to the W.L.P.?

I met Mari de la Fuente this year, a fellow teacher here in Spain, and we had talked a lot about volunteer opportunities. I have always dedicated several hours a year to volunteering and always seek out new opportunities. I had a specific interest in volunteering in a long-term program in Africa or Asia for this coming summer, since I have almost a month (June) free. Unfortunately, most volunteer programs ask for sizable program fees, and this is something that is difficult for me to afford as a student with a large amount of debt owed for my university education.

Mari mentioned her past experiences with Tashi and the W.L.P. in India, and I thought it was perfect. I quickly emailed Tashi, and from our first email exchange I could tell this was the opportunity I was looking for. I am thrilled to be able to travel away from the normal tourist destinations and experience the true culture of this region, so far away from my own home.

Why are you interested in this project?

I love to volunteer. My parents came from very poor backgrounds, and have found success through hard work, but they have instilled in us (my 5 brothers and I) an awareness that not all people have been as fortunate as us. They have taught us to always give back, and to help people. This experience in Gulabgarh is especially exciting as it is an international one, and in a place that I have never been.

What are your feelings when you think about your visit?

Excited, as this is an opportunity that I have always sought. However, of course I have the normal feelings of nervousness going to a new place, traveling by myself, and going to a region of the world that most people know mostly as an area of conflict.

Are you interested in volunteering, too?

Just send an email to Tashi – lonpoadventure@yahoo.in

Empowering women: IKEA partners with the UNDP

Recently, on the WLP Facebook page, we posted some important news for the rural women of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populated and least developed state: An important partnership between IKEA and the United Nations Development Programme may bring new hope to the women of the region.

For other, more isolated rural areas of India such as Paddar, small-scale efforts like the Women's Literacy Project of Gulabgarh are also working to empower women, so that they become key proactive members of their community.

There is still so much to be done in this emerging economy to help build women's skills, confidence, self-reliance and yes, even their financial literacy, that every initiative counts. Our project has begun preparing the ground toward empowerment by teaching our students the basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy.

Below is the article we published in Technorati with more information regarding this recent development.

Article first published as Empowering Women: IKEA Joins Efforts With UNDP on Technorati.

"Empowered lives. Resilient nations." The heading on the homepage of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) website is inspiring a new effort designed to benefit the rural women of India. With a focus on empowering women, the UNDP has partnered with IKEA Foundation in a project that aims to help build the self-reliance and financial skills of over 50,000 women in 500 villages in three districts of Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populated (almost 200 m) but least developed state.
The partnership programme, to which IKEA has pledged €30 million, aims to promote this target group's financial literacy, thereby "strengthening their technical, institutional, managerial and financial skills so that they are able to play a larger role in the social and economic development in the villages."
Including rural women in its undertakings is an apparent attempt to broaden IKEA Foundation’s mission, until now focused mainly on helping the children of developing countries.

Read more: http://technorati.com/business/article/empowering-women-ikea-joins-efforts-with/#ixzz1sljf5s2q

For Engracia

Women we admire. Women like Engracia López, one of the WLP’s most respected benefactors. Her story is the story of so many women from around the globe: widowed young, she raised her family through her own effort.

This determined, hardworking woman knows what it takes to survive very hard times. That is why she understands the women of Gulabgarh, their eagerness to become literate and in the process, to prosper and progress, to feel respected and appreciated, to achieve dignity.

Engracia is a wonderful woman who relishes the different roles she has fulfilled throughout her life: mother, worker, friend, neighbor. At the age of 82, she continues to learn and to be an active participant in society.

All of us can learn from women like Engracia. That is why the WLP wishes to share her story with a group of women who are just now beginning to understand the importance of their own education, personal growth and pro-active participation in society.

Thank you, Engracia, for all your help and for trusting in the Women’s Literacy Project of Gulabgarh.

Every woman has a story to tell, each and every one of them has wisdom to share.

WLP bylaws

The project members are now working--and just about finished--on the WLP bylaws. As part of its mission, the organization aims to develop activities and design special actions to uplift, encourage and motivate the illiterate women of the most remote and underdeveloped areas of Paddar.

In order to achieve its goals, the WLP will focus on shifting the attitude of the community of Paddar from a heightened awareness of the crucial issue of women’s literacy, towards a commitment to help eradicate female illiteracy and finally towards assuming a more pro-active role in this effort. 

Encouraging lifelong learning among the illiterate female population of Paddar is another key issue that the WLP will address.

In the future, the project will further strive to empower the women of this rural area and reduce gender inequality through digital literacy. The WLP firmly believes that by equipping these women with the skills needed to become digitally literate, the society aspires to help bridge the great digital divide that exists between rural and urban India.