No Tall Talks, Just Small Actions!

This video showcases the story of a woman, who did not lose hope. A woman who gave it a try. A woman who attempted on destiny and succeeded. Washington Area Women's Foundation is a community organization working for the women of Washington DC metropolitan area. The Foundation works through philanthropy, but their uniqueness lie in their approach. Instead of giving them one-off financial help, which is very popular in societies like Pakistan, these bunch of philanthropists got together and tried to think of the ways their little money could provide them lifelong relief.

The program they developed focussed on leadership training in financial education, wealth creation, jobs and business ownership, child care, early education, health care and safety etc. Another amazingly effective feature was their identification of two general groups of women in Washington area. At one side, there were women who were most highly educated, employed and well paid in the nation. While on the other hand, there are women struggling in their role as family breadwinners, inadequately paid, living in or nearby poverty, having limited access to health care facilities for herself and the family. The Foundation connected these two groups of women. The one's from privileged backgrounds became potential trainers. This video is a success story of one of these women who got training to get a job, she eventually got a decent job and now her living standard has been changed considerably.

This is what I call power of individual's actions! Why can't we make a decision just now, that instead of making tall talk in drawing room discussions and on Facebook pages, why not do something on our own little individual level? A small step that could grow into a bigger one, could be our decision to educate people around us. Let's narrow it down a little more. All of us, well most of us, have domestic help available to do household chores. Mostly, this labour force comprises women, and in many cases children as well. Can we just take a decision NOW to educate at least one of our domestic helpers?

Education in this case would not mean literacy. It would mean enabling them to think, make informed opinion,learn life skills, develop a civic sense, make hygiene and cleanliness an inalienable part of their consciousness, assisting them developing a vocabulary related to their work, making them conscious of their rights and duties of being a law abiding citizen, teaching them importance of water and energy conservation. Believe me it is not very difficult. Its much easier than making high (mostly false) claims and doing conspiracy induced superficial political analyses in our living rooms.

One small step from us, can change a life. Is it too much to ask?