Empowering Women One Step at a Time

Entrepreneurs Kalyani Gongi and Divya Medar are quietly making inroads in helping women become financially independent through their training programme.

Helping the needy, especially women, had been a long time goal of entrepreneurs Kalyani Gongi and Divya Medar who met at a Goldman Sachs ‘10K Women entrepreneurs’ programme at ISB and Fortune/ U.S. Department Global Mentoring Programme Network. At the programme they came to know about the initiatives sponsored by the U S Dept. After sometime following her return from a seminar, Kalyani discussed applying for a grant from the U.S. Dept. with Divya. Subsequently the project was approved in February 2017.

Their backgrounds may have been different, Kalyani is the founder of Ancient Living, a social enterprise that makes organic personal care products, while Divya is the founder of SnackerStreet, a frozen snacks company, but empowering women from the lower strata of society was a philosophy they shared. Together they came up with a five-month programme called ‘Empowering Women through Financial Independence and Gender Equality’.

According to Kalyani, “The women working in my factory and outlets used to make paper bags. One worker Lakshmi told me that she knows other women in her locality who may be interested in making such bags. However, for bulk orders, we switched to cloth bags since many of them knew how to stitch”. In their own small way, the employees had empowered other women unknowingly, inspiring her to think of starting a training programme for women. “We truly believe that every woman has it in her. All she needs is someone to believe in her and give her that push to free herself of all her shackles,” says Divya.

However, a challenge they faced was getting the home-bound women to come on board. “We approached women who lived in Venkanna hills in the interiors of Jeedimetla. Initially, they were resistant to the idea, but agreed when we explained what entrepreneurship means and how they can earn money while staying at home. Nearly 75 women participated in the workshop on the first two days and 30 women were able to sustain themselves at the end of the workshop,” says Kalyani.

Under the initiative, women made kalamkari bangles, ikat bags, cushion covers, accessories, pickles among other items, which were later sold in an exhibition at the end of the workshop. “We identified each woman’s skill and told her to work on that, some were good at sewing, bangle making, others at cooking. We provided the raw materials first and later told them where they could get the material at a lesser price,” says Kalyani, who along with Divya told the women to take their time perfecting their skills.

“Through this programme, we not only wanted to help these women think independently as able workers or spirited entrepreneurs but also help them create a strong support system to fall back on,” adds Divya. While the workshop has finished for now, they continue to provide support to these women until they find their own way. They are also acting as facilitators by introducing them to ALEAP, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and representatives from ISB. In a welcome development, local entrepreneurs-Sudha Rani of Abhihaara, Hema Balakrishnan of Color D Earth, Renu Rao from Deckle Edge and the U.S. Consulate General Gabriel Hons-Olivier have also placed orders with these women to encourage them. Their future plan is to start an e-commerce portal for the women towards global exposure.