‘Empowerment of Women through Friends of Tribals Society by Smt. Sathyashree Priya. E., Chairperson, Mahila Samithy (FTS) Kochi

During our Vanayathra visit, we had an interaction with our tribal brethren. The members of the Mahila Samithy, FTS sensed a need for the formation of Self Help Groups (SHG’s) for their empowerment . Since one of the objectives of our FTS is to improve the socio-economic condition of the tribal society we decided to promote formation of SHG’s.

With the support of Bharat Petroleum Corporate Limited, BPCL, Kochi Division (a Public Sector enterprise) consenting to sponsor the training program, we the members of the Mahila Samithy with the co-operation of the committee members of FTS conducted the program on the 7^th and 8^th of June 2014. We would like to acknowledge here the special support and guidance rendered to us by the FTS President, Shri S.S. Agarwal and the Joint Secretary Shri. P.K. Krishnamurthy apart from the new committee members, Shri. P.K. Venkita Raman and Shri. M. Ramachandran, in the smooth conduct of the program. Our Special thanks to the Office Bearers of the North Indian Association who had provided the accommodation free of cost and the venue to conduct the two days training program.

There were 46 participants, comprising of males and females of different age groups. They were trained on Mushroom Cultivation by Smt Anitha, Vegetable and Fruit Promotion Council and in making dry flowers bouquet of different shapes and sizes with bio-degradable papers and environment friendly materials by Smt. Sudhakshina and Dr. Namitha.