FROM THE WEALTH OF WORLD PULSE ARCHIVE

Figure: (1) World Pulse cards featuring me and Olutosin Oladoshu Adebowale from Nigeria and our collaboration (2) 19 January 2017 Women's March Campaign(3)World Pulse Spirit Awards 2020 Online Meeting 13 April 2020(4) Zoom call with Tamarack Verrall from Canada 11 July 2020 during the thick of Covid-19

Dear Reader,

As World Pulse celebrates its 20th anniversary, I reflect on the part it has played in my life for 14 years, on who I was and who I am now, what I wanted to be given when I started out and what I want to give to others now. What I write may not resemble an article to you, and some may even find it long but even if there was one paragraph dedicated for each year, I am still allowed fourteen paragraphs to describe the wealth of experiences from World Pulse that I know. This consolidation does not come with one cohesive message at the end but several pearls of learnings that may enrich your life like it did mine.

With love from India, Urmila Chanam

ALWAYS YOUR ORGANIZATION

For working women getting e-mails and notifications, meetings, discussions, trainings or upgradation of skills, office celebrations, interaction with colleagues, getting picked to lead an assignment or project, even enjoying a role of importance or getting constructive feedback- are all part and parcel of their work life. For those who are unemployed, on a sabbatical due to health set back, child birth, elderly care, relocation or other family problems, struggling enterpreneurs, never employed before, or stay-at-home women, these aspects are totally missing from their lives.

One may ask how important these activities are in terms of fulfilment, sense of identity, or as an anchor to keep our dreams and aspirations related to our professions and careers, alive. These professional interactions can work wonders on keeping us "centered" during the lows of our professional life because only interactions which are personal that we enjoy with our family, friends and loved ones, can isolate us from the professional world and make it extremely hard, if not impossible, to start all over again from a scratch.

During the time I was not working, in between jobs, was not associated with any organisation or starting out as an enterpreneur, there was a time where the only e-mails in my inbox were from World Pulse! Invitations to "Training Tuesdays", Encourager Party, participate in a survey, ongoing campaign or involving me in a discussion. Something or the other would always be happening on World Pulse all through out the year and we as members would certainly be made a part of it! I always felt needed, like my opinion and my work was always considered important, our identity always unchanged for the World Pulse family by which I mean the management, organisation and members from across the world. Being included and given importance especially when we are going through a major low point in our life, navigating through our options, feeling isolated or in need of inspiration can uplift many women in the world.

YOU WILL ALWAYS GET HELP

One of the toughest aspects of landing good jobs or opportunities like leadership programs, trainings and workshops, global conferences, even funding is our professional refrences- individuals or organizations which agree to nominate us or refer us as capable of delivering. All our claims regarding our skills, experiences and our brilliant plans are only as good as the references we provide at the time of application of our candidature. Atleast in India, this happens to be the scenario but does everyone enjoy that kind of relationship with their senior(s) at work, or the management to expect a recommendation? What if the boss we did share a great rapport with was from a job we kept more than a decade ago and are no more in touch. Our contact may have moved to another organization, another country, another sector.There are lot of considerations to be made when it comes to managing our professional references. I once knew someone who gave his consent and yet did not respond to phone calls and e-mails from a prospective employer thus reinforcing the fact that not everyone wants to see you grow, not everyone is willing to devote time for the process, not everyone is confident in taking guarantee for another person and therefore, professional reference cannot be obligatory.

Figure: My first Press Card was from World Pulse in 2014

In contrast, World Pulse has always been available and eager to provide any references, documents and so on to support women in their professional endeavours; no questions asked and unconditional help extended. My first Press Card or identity card for a journalist was issued by World Pulse in 2014 in response to my request as I was finding it extremely difficult to gain access to public events and meetings for photographs and interviews, and the newspapers I contributed articles to were reluctant to issue ID cards to freelancers. Even though issuance of ID cards for members was not a norm in those days, World Pulse entertained my request thus demonstrating the extent to which they would go to support and uplift women. With this press card I undertook several media assignments and wrote many articles, and still preserve my first press card for sentimental reasons.

Looking at my first press card reminds me of what we can and should do to support and uplift women and step in to fill the lacunae in their struggle as professionals.

With reference and recommendation from World Pulse I was able to attend a residential training on Environment Conservation in Rishikesh(India) in 2018 organised by Women's Earth Alliance (WEA), United Religions Initiative (URI) and Global Interfaith WASH Aliance(GIWA). This training added a new dimension to my work on menstrual hygiene management and brought me in contact with key stakeholders in the sector in addition to enjoying the quite and serene spiritual experience at Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, a spritual abode for many.

Stella Paul from India, that time a board member, recommended me for a media fellowship to cover Nirmal Bharat Yatra in 2012, a pan India campaign to raise awareness on open defecation, sanitation, hand washing and menstrual hygiene management. I have met extremely helpful women on World Pulse over the years like Beth Lacey(USA), Olutosin Adebowale(Nigeria), Jill Lhangus-Griffin(USA), Aise Jisimah(Nigeria), Kirthi Jaykumar (India), Chi Yvonne(Ethiopia) to name a few.

Fig: Environment Conservation Training at Rishikesh(India) 2018

ENCOURAGEMENT

From 8-13 May 2017, I attended Women Economic Forum Global Conference in Delhi where I addressed an august audience comprising of women leaders, famous personalities, businesswomen, enterpreneurs, and thought leaders. That particular experience was not like any other because two other World Pulse women were also in the audience, Paulina Lawsin(Philippines) and Phionah Musumba(Kenya), both of who I had known for many years "online" and was meeting them in person for the first time. I heard Phionah cheer me with, " Our sister Urmila!", Paulina recorded my speech using her mobile phone. There was a moment inside the conference hall at Pullman Hotel when we three were heading towards each other to meet for the first time and when we did meet, there were hugs, kisses and tears. Someone from the crowd asked us if we knew each other, perhaps trying to understand the intensity of our love and Paulina took the opportunity to introduce World Pulse.

In a world of self promotion and cut-throat competition, World Pulse women are rare as they cheer other women, encouraging them and being proud of their body of work and in this build a sisterhood. A sisterhood which can be our heritage as women.

Fig: Women Economic Forum International Conference, Delhi, 2017 with Paulina Lawsin and Phionah Musumba

READY COLLABORATION

A sisterhood makes collaborations seamless where you find a ready resource person, participants for your event, a partner, host for your field work or campaign on ground, donors, advisors and mentors. Olutosin Oladoshu Adebowale from Nigeria, a board member, prolific writer and social enterpreneur was my host and partner for my campaign on menstrual hygiene management in Nigeria in 2019. Sister Zephaniah from Pakistan and winner of the prestigious Global Teacher's Prize 2023 partnered with me for a campaign on menstrual hygiene management in 2015 where we jointly conducted awareness sessions for adolescent girls in Pakistan using digital tools like Skype. Upasana Chauhan(USA), Busayo Obisakin(Nigeria), Beatrice Keronga(Uganda), Karen Axalan(Philippines), Grace Ikirimat(Uganda) all World Pulse members have been my collaborators at some point of time bringing in their expertise, advice and material support to beneficiaries. Jensine Larsen, Founder and CEO, World Pulse is the most humble, approachable and supportive person I have ever come across; she participated in the World Pulse Skype Based Event I conducted in 2017 in partnership with Bengaluru's first community radio station, Radioactive 90.1 MHz through a video address, and also in Men Take Lead Ride a bullet bike rally I conducted on 28 May 2022 in Bengaluru to commemorate International Menstrual Hygiene Day and celebrate men's involvement.

Your fairy godmother is on World Pulse.

Fig: (1)Bharti Singh Chauhan(India) supporting Breaking the Silence Campaign in 2014 (2)NGO personnel training workshop in 2019 in Lagos with Olutosin Oladoshu Adebowale from Nigeria (3) Sister Zeph from Pakistan rendering support to my campaign on MHM (4) Skype based video training on MHM conducted in Pakistan (5) Jensine Larsen's address on International Menstrual Hygiene Day 2022 (6) Sis Zeph from Pakistan addressing Men Take Lead Ride 2022 in India (7) My first banner arrived from Nigeria in 2014 gifted by Olutosin

VISIBILITY BREAKING ALL BARRIERS

When you work in an organization you may enjoy visibility to outsiders only if you are at a top position in the heirarchy and that may take many years which is not so with World Pulse where women, their work and beliefs are amplified on their website, publications, reports and recommendations to global governance and decision-making systems like the United Nations. It is here that women like myself found their voice, gathered the courage and clarity to speak up, had their skills on communication, leadership, program management honed to further work on achieving our vision.

Fig: My first camera was a prize from World Pulse in 2016 as one of the three winners of Voices of Our Future Training on Digital Skills, now called Advanced Digital Skills Empowerment.

THE REAL GAME CHANGER

In India women constitute only 24% of the labour force, and 48% of the total student enrolment at the higher education level inspite of constituting nearly half of the population. Further, 73% of women in India leave their jobs after giving birth and fail to return and around 50% of the working women in the country resign at the age of 30 to take care of their children.

This tells us clearly that not all girls receive education or complete school and college because it is not a priority for families. Not all of those who do complete their education get a job or receive support from their families to be gainfully employed due to pressure to get married, bear children, and the social norms for women to play the roles of home maker and caregiver rather than that of a bread earner. Those who do manage to work experience discontinuity at the time of child birth with new added responsibilities, lack of child care facility and support, lack of guidance to find work life balance, unrealistic expectations from the new mother. Many women get so entwined in the complicated mesh of responsibilities and expectations that their careers are sacrificed just to keep peace at home.

Women's challenges in India and the sub-continent in terms of their career goals are largely related to lack of support and the regressive social attitude towards girls and women. In such a context what a game changer it will be for women to enjoy support, have a sisterhood they can always go to for guidance and mentoring, which believes in their vision and capability, provides a platform to exercise their voice and agency, create their networks, and execute their vision- all in a safe, supportive,non-judgemental environment and linked to knowledge and resources.

World Pulse is not just an organization but a global sisterhood and a promising model of how women's empowerment can be achieved- not through policies and programs but through the value system of SUPPORT.