Nurturing women leaders of tomorrow

Women leaders around the world have shown extraordinary talent and resilience handling the Covid-19 pandemic, driving home the need for more women leaders and women participation across different sectors.

SoCh is one such programme with a vision to create more women leaders in the community. "With SoCh, we want to unlock the passion of women in the social sector, see the value in them, and eventually become events of change in the society," says Anusha Bharadwaj, the Founder-Director of SoCh.

SoCh's flagship programme, the SILT Bootcamp Program is one platform where young women in their 20s are taken through an extensive programme where they understand about the development sector and find their calling in the sector.

"To ensure that women and girls know what they are up against when they start solving issues cropping up in their communities and in their homes, it is necessary that they have the knowledge and skills which will hold her in good state. With this mission, we are running our second flagship program, Oorja, where we work with young women from Government Degree Colleges of two-tier cities to provide them with knowledge to understand themselves, as well as to be future-ready and take action in the community," said Anusha Bharadwaj.

Driven by passion to create more women leaders around the world, SoCh for Social Change's E4 for Social Impact Leadership is a step in that direction. In December, 2020 SoCh for Social Change in partnership with The East-West

Center, VOICE 4 Girls, and The US Consulate General Hyderabad, launched the E4 for Social Impact Leadership Program. Designed exclusively for women interested in the social sector, the program will be spread over two phases and includes online modules as well as peer coaching by industry experts, apart from masterclasses and panel discussions.

The cohort for the E4 program includes 28 participants from diverse sectors including education, IT, finance, and climate action. The program will enable participants to come up with an action plan for the next one year from the time they complete the course.

Facilitators for the session include Anusha Bharadwaj, the Executive Director of VOICE 4 Girls, Christina Monroe, Leadership Program Senior Manager at East-West Center Hawaii, and co-facilitated by Sharanya Gautam, the Manager of Training and Capacity Building at Corstone.

"We wanted to conduct E4 in May, where we envisioned a class full of passionate women, blooming with various ideas, and coming together to form great networks which would help each one of them in the magic that they want to create on field. Due to COVID-19 our plans altered. This is when we thought of bringing the cohort together online. The passion is same, only the medium has changed," adds Anusha who is also the Asia Pacific Leadership Program alumnus.

With more than 15 years of experience in the sector, she is taking her dream forward of creating women leaders in all strata of the community with SoCh. She adds, "There is something about working with women! They are full of energy and that is what I love about them!"