Please Vote for a Worthy Cause.

Our society believes that girl children are a liability. They have always been targeted. New born girl children have been killed and abandoned for decades. Ultrasound technology has only made this worse. Girls children are being aborted as early as 20 weeks, while still in the mother’s womb. Which is less humane, no body can tell.

Many of us feel strongly for this and due to many reasons, we have been arm chair activists. Now is a chance to be an arm chair activist AND make a difference.

Arti Home For Girls is an orphanage for abandoned girls children based out of Kadappa, Andhra Pradesh. Its founder Sandhya, has been working with abandoned girl children and women forced to abort their unborn girl children for the past 20 years. She has contributed in many levels and has made a difference in the lives of more than 1000 girl children.

Arti Home is participating in the IMPACT CONTEST. Winning this contest will give many unborn children a chance of survival, women a possibility to stand up for their girl children, educational and vocational training for the abandoned girls.

Please vote and show your support.

What to do:

- Click on the link  http://www.gwln-contest.strutta.com/entry/265634

- Right top corner will have a link to log in to FB. Give appropriate permissions for FB, if asked.

- Click on VOTE FOR THIS ENTRY.

Thanks a bunch, you have made a difference in a child’s life.

Summer Reading Program in Hyderabad.

Utbtkids has designed a summer reading program for Treasure House in Hyderabad. The description makes me wish I were a kid and that I lived in Hyderabad! :) 
The below is from her post.

The program is called Reading Bugs.

It is for children age infant – 15.

For parents of children age 0 – 5, I am offering a parent information work shop that talks about why reading is important, what are the early literacy skills that are targeted by reading to young children, what to read, when to read, how to read, why we are reading what we are reading.

For children age 6 – 9, THE BUTTERFLIES BOOK CLUB. The underlying goal of this book club is to make children aware of other genres. The world of books is not just magic, fantasy and what-ever-my-older-sibling/friend-is-reading. There is fiction, non-fiction, drama, picture books, chapter books, environmental issues, humor, classics, mythology, history, exploration/discovery/voyages…. and many more. Catch them young, when they have started reading independently and introduce them to the different choices so that they pause at their age level and explore choices at level instead of jumping to what is popular and run out of choices soon. I call this, my ‘prevent children from getting lost in the adventure/magic/mystery Bermuda triangle’ mission. Children will interact with Sridala Swami, author of Cheenu’s Gift and Sandhya Rao, editor of Tulika Publishers.

For children age 6 – 9, I am offering a workshop. MAKE YOUR READING BLOOM. The idea is to work with beginner and reluctant readers on certain skills that will improve comprehension and fluency. This will be a 5 session workshop.

For 10+ children, in keeping with my Bermuda triangle theory, I am doing THE MYTHOLOGY BOOK CLUB. This club will analyze mythology as a genre, compare elements from various mythologies, talk about mythological characters and beasts and has two author interaction sessions. Devdutt Pattanaik and Anu Kumar.

If you are in Hyderabad the place to be is

Treasurehouse
plot#1254/A Rd#63,
Adjacent to ICICI Bank rd#36,
Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 5000033
Phone#: (040)23550118
Email: info@treasurehouse.in

Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month - April 2012.

Remember April 2011 on Twitter, Facebook and blogs? We talked about Child Sexual Abuse – the hows, the wheres and the whens. We were overwhelmed by the response it generated, humbled by the weight of the personal stories of despair and courage.

It’s that time of the year again and we’re going ahead with Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Month – April 2012.

Do you have a story to tell? Tips to share? A video, a link, an ebook? As a parent, as an adult, as a child? As before, we honour all requests for anonymity.

Bring your experience and your expertise to this awareness initiative via

Blog posts with the logo (you can copy the image above), linkback to our blog, with the words “CSAAM April 2012” in the title
Twitter posts or links to @CSAawareness, tagged “#CSAAM”
FB notes linking to our Facebook page
Emails to csa.awareness.april@gmail.com
Or just simply show support by displaying the Picsquare badge on your site/page/profile

This year, we hope to increase our focus and reach with our new CSAAM App and our sensitisation workshops. You’ll find both in our blog come April 2012.

Stay tuned at http://csaawarenessmonth.com/

Congrats, Kiran!

If you have nt heard already, the fantastic blogger and a good friend (ahem!), Kiran Manral is out with her first book, The Reluctant Detective! Im sure whoever reads her blog knew it was coming since she is a wonderful, wonderful writer.

To learn more about the book, visit Kiran's brand new website http://www.thereluctantdetectivebook.blogspot.com/

You can buy the book from Flipkart here.

I love the cover and I cant wait to get my hands on it. Wishing you all things wonderful, Kiran!

Crocus 2011.

Crocus 2011 is here! Saffron Tree's annual festival of books is about to begin! ST is turning five and the theme this year is the FIVE ELEMENTS. Click here for Sandhya's beautiful introductory post and keep checking the web site for more. Reviews, art & crafts, interviews, competitions,... they got it all!

Violence Against Women Awareness Month.

Similar to the CSA Awareness Month, October is going to be Violence Against Women Awareness Month.

Heres what the core team has to say about it:

We know the subject is very wide and includes multiple aspects. To ensure that this awareness campaign is

effective, we have limited our scope to the following aspects:

1. Domestic violence – physical violence by husband/partner, other family members etc
2. Violence against girl child – including deprivation
3. Sexual violence – including marital rape, date rape
4. Emotional/psychological abuse
5. Dowry-related violence – including bride burning
6. Female infanticide
7. Acid attacks

We invite you to support and strengthen VAWM Oct 2011 as only you can. You can...

Keep up with our blog.

Write about it and send your blog post links or writeups to vawawareness at gmail dot com

(confidentiality and anonymity respected, as always).

Tweet about it – don't forget to add http://twitter.com/#!/VAWMonth .

Join in the Facebook discussions.

Show your support with the badge.

It's the season that celebrates the power of women. Come join in our Stree Shakti special posts.

Twitter Chat on Child Sexual Abuse.

Anuja Gupta founder of RAHI Foundation is going to a twitter chat on the issue of Child Sexual Abuse on 5th April between 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm.

We will be tweeting with a hashtag of #CSAAM, please login in to twitter at that time for the informative. The chat will be Q&A based and if u have any questions you want her to answer please leave them in the comments or tweet them to us at @CSAAwareness with a hashtag of #CSAAM

A little about RAHI and Anuja

About RAHI –

The RAHI Foundation is a support centre, based in New Delhi, India. It is the only centre of its kind in the country that specializes in working with adult women survivors of incest and childhood sexual abuse and offers services that are uniquely important to their recovery process. The centre is dedicated to providing individual and group services for survivors aimed at their psychological, emotional, sexual and spiritual recovery.

The Foundation was established in August 1996 on the basis of the prestigious Fellowship for Population Innovations of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation received by Anuja Gupta, Director of RAHI.

Website – http://www.rahifoundation.org/home.html

About Anuja Gupta

Anuja Gupta is the Founder & Executive Director at RAHI Foundation, a centre for the prevention and healing of incest/child sexual abuse.

Anuja and her work at RAHI

Anuja started RAHI (Recovering and Healing from Incest) Foundation in 1996. RAHI is a support centre for adult women survivors of incest and child sexual abuse (CSA) and an education, advocacy, training, research and communication in the field.

RAHI is the only organization of its kind in India.

In Anuja’s words – “I am an incest/CSA educator, trainer and counselor. I do individual and group therapy with adult women survivors and their supporters, and with non-abusive family members of child victims. My therapeutic approach is a blend of feminist counseling, narrative therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and psychodrama.
I conduct training with mental health professionals, students and social workers and lecture and present extensively on the subject at universities, schools, conferences, NGOs and other forums in the country and abroad. I help start and mentor other organizations and support groups working on child sexual abuse in the country.”

Cross posted from the CSAAM website.