WHAT WE ARE UP TO : Project Urja Designs Diyas

WHAT WE ARE UP TO

Project Urja Designs Diyas

  

In anticipation of Diwali, the Festival of Lights, Project Urja has been busy designing diyas that are to be offered for sale. This recent initiative not only celebrates Diwali but also helps improve the financial status of women through the sale of the products they make.

 Designer diyas produced by Project Urja

Designer diyas are earthen pots that can be used as small pots for Diwali celebration. These pots are colored individually, with each diya reflecting an innovative idea that combines their hard-work and creativity. As a result, Project Urja produces designer diyas in various colours and patterns that depict the tradition of Diwali.  

 Project Urja Women Creating Diyas

Through initiatives such as this, Project Urja hopes to continue helping women gain more economic independence by imparting skills that can be used to generate more income for them. Project Urja is now aiding 25 women through its vision and hopes to help more women in the near future.

By Asyura Salleh

Project Urja Learns Paper Quilling - #Baroda

WHAT WE ARE UP TO

Project Urja Learns Paper Quilling

As a Colorss initiative aimed towards fostering economic independence amongst disadvantaged women, Project Urja helps empower women by teaching them skills that can be used to generate an income. Since its inception, Project Urja has successfully swelled to a group of around 25 women, who have recently been busy paper quilling.

Women of Project Urja learn Paper Quilling

Paper quilling is a creative art form that rolls, shapes and glues together strips of paper to create decorative designs. These designs can then be used to decorate several items, from storage boxes to greeting cards.

Paper Quilling Products

As keen learners, the women of Project Urja quickly picked up paper quilling after only a two-hours training session. They were immediately able to produce paper quilling outputs, and look forward to making more products such as designer envelopes and decorative wall fixtures.

Project Urja Women with their Paper Quilling products

Villagers pose with the Paper Quilling Outputs

With their acute ability to pick up skills and serious dedication, Project Urja is confident that the women’s paper quilling products would continuously improve in quality in the future. We look forward to more paper quilling from Project Urja!

By Asyura Salleh

Nielsen Global Impact Day 2014 with Colorss at Baroda | Colorss Foundation

On April 20th, 2014 Colorss Foundation gave a shout out on Twitter and Facebook for people to donate a sewing machine for Project Urja. On June 12th, 2014 this request was fulfilled by Nielsen on the Nielsen Global Impact Day (NGID). This donation was made to Colorss Foundation as part of Nielsen Cares, Baroda initiative.

#colorss #womenempowerment #nielsencares - Team Colorss at Baroda

Colorss was founded by Anand Koti with a mission to give a platform to like-minded people to work towards empowering socially deprived children and ensuring their right to education. Hence the project 'Colors of Life' was started in Pune. Since its inception in 2008, Colorss has come a long way and spearheaded many more projects.  A learning over a period of time and initiatives, that a child cannot progress in isolation and that the mother is the most instrumental factor of this empowerment process gave birth to Project Urja.

#innocence #cute #children #colorss #joyofgiving

Colorss Foundation started Project Urja with a focus to empower rural women to become entrepreneurs and in turn become self-reliant citizens inspite of limited opportunities. This program marked a step ahead in this direction through this generous donation. Slums of Indiranagar, Baroda participated in various activities that Colorss Foundation and Nielsen had organised to celebrate and spread awareness about Project Urja.

The day's plan had something for each community member. A drawing competition was held which saw more than 60 children in the age group of 6-11 years take part from Sanjay Nagar - 1 and Sanjay Nagar - 2 slums of Indira Nagar. The kids also had fun playing various other games while their mothers got a health check up at the general medical health camp conducted on the day. Free medicines will be provided as per their prescriptions in the coming week to more than 65 women who participated in the camp by Nielsen.  A workshop was also conducted to emphasize the value of managing time and finances in the lives of these women who play multiple roles of a mother, daughter, wife, friend and confidante to feed and nurture their families as well as contribute to their communities. The objective was to reach out to these women and motivate them to join Project Urja.

Ms Sophie Joseph Vice President of Nielsen sharing her thoughts about Colorss

The men were definitely not forgotten. A short informative skit was performed by the Nielsen team to put forth the ills of alcoholism. In spite of Gujarat being a dry state, alcohol is still playing havoc in the lives of rural and marginalized population. This is affecting whole families and especially children. The performance addressed the negative impact an alcoholic father can have on the education of a girl child. A message for rehabilitation through de-addiction camps was communicated to help reform the fathers.

Nielsen Global Impact Day with Colorss Foundation in Baroda ended with a prize distribution for the winners of the drawing competition and hot and delicious Chai-Samosa for refreshments. But Colorss' engagement has definitely not ended with Baroda. Colorss Foundation through the Nielsen cares initiative reached out to over 200 people from the community. The foundation aims to bring together a lot more people from other parts of Baroda to grow Project Urja. Colorss also hopes the society to come forward and get involved through monetary or/and volunteering support. You can started by visiting their website/ blog to know more about their various other projects. Don't forget to follow them on Facebook , Twitter and YouTube to show your support and stay updated.

For Love,

Prajakta Patil

#colorss #nielsen #nielsencares #nielsenglobalimpactday #baroda #ngo #children #womenempowerment