Sheroes and Heroes Unite Website

Sheroes and Heroes Unite

1) Women Empowerment

• Forum where everyone can talk about their issues and present their solutions
• The issue with the most discussion will be posted
• Debates on how to resolve or address the issue appropriately
• Solution with most votes wins
• Forum closes. 
• Financial team estimates the cost of executing the solution
• Launches an indiegogo to meet this goal
• Open your own "Sheroes and Heroes Unite" Chapter and help raise money. 
• If the goal is met, the solution is executed. If the goal isn't met, the money is saved for another solution. 
• 5 Chapters that raise the most money are invited to see the execution happen and take the experience back home. 

approximately 2-4 projects a year (process repeats). The first project will concern women empowerment

• I contacted Wix.com for a pro to help me out
• One of my judges that was helping me with the non-profit process is not replying. 

Seminars in Dallas dealing with Women's Empowerment

A Better Plan B- Empowerment Seminar

A Better Plan B - Ron Williams

Weekly Event - Every Thursday: 7:00 PM (CDT)

Dallas, TX

http://www.meetup.com/Living-Out-Loud-Womens-Conference-2015/

http://www.meetup.com/YourEmpoweredSolutions/

http://www.meetup.com/The-JOY-Factor-Meetup/

http://www.meetup.com/MS-FITSINC-MOTIVATED-SISTERS-FOCUSED-INSPIRED-TO-TRANSFORM/events/

http://www.meetup.com/WOVI-Flower-Mound/

http://www.meetup.com/IMPACT-Involved-Motivated-People-Acting-Courageous-Together/

http://www.meetup.com/Plano-Womens-Self-Defense-Workshop-and-Networking/

http://www.meetup.com/YWTFDallas/

http://www.meetup.com/WOWDems/

Senior Panoramic Photo

Panoramic Photo took about 50 minutes or more. It was hot and very crowded. However, I felt like an actual senior, so that was nice.

I started working around 12:05 PM. This is what I got done today.

I am going to answer these questions based on "Nacirema" in this week's lesson.

1) Magical practitioners are at the top, giving them the most power. Everyone lower in the hierarchy automatically have a sense of respect and obligation to the few at the top.  "In the hierarchy of magical practitioners, and below the medicine men in prestige, are specialists whose designation is best translated as "holy-mouth-men." There is a hierarchy in this culture. A real comparison could be the Hindu caste system. People arrange marriages according to caste, and the people at the top are "Bhramins" or the people who run temples. The "top" had some power long before, and the rest have come to believe that the top should rule the community as well. For example, "Ivy league" does not mean "the best school," it just means it's a private school long established with a sports team in the East coast of US. Over the years, after gaining so much attention and funds, they managed to actually become "top-tier" schools. Then, we believe everyone who comes out of these schools to be smarter than those who come out of other colleges and universities. The same goes for this situation. After the medicine men had power for a while, the people got used to the men having all the power and believed that any medicine man is better than the people below and should therefore lead the community.  The culture (people in a community have different roles) created a hierarchy, and the hierarchy brought in power.
2) Over time, most community leaders were probably magical practitioners. Hence, what they did and what role they played in the community became very important. Since they lead many rituals and were leaders, followers began to believe the rituals were the most important thing to maintain a stable community. Slowly, people began making these rites and rituals a huge part of their living... (couldn't finish)

Until next time!!!

So far what the non-profit-making process looks like

Sheroes and Heroes Unite

Determine what type of nonprofit organization you want to create.

·         Promotes togetherness and equality between the members and the recipients of our projects

·         Give everyone a voice

·         Beginning with gender disparity, gender roles, gender based violence

Choose a name for your organization. 

·         Sheroes and Heroes Unite

·         “Your voice counts. Speak”

·         “At least be aware”

·         “Know. Talk. Care.”

Apply for the name

·         Call TX’s state corporations division

·         Small fee to reserve the name until I have filed “Articles of Corporation”

·         Contacted my judge to help me with the name and filing

Formulate a Mission Statement

·         On another document

Make a logo

·         I have an idea…I need someone to help me digitalize it

·         Letter/Symbol that resembles an “S” and a “H”

·         Same colored Greek gender symbols connected by two gold chain loops

·         All of it contained in a “Superman” logo border

EdGE Week 9

How would you answer that concluding sentence: "given the true complex nature of 'community,' is this 'engagement' possible?"

Instead of finding a group that is representative of the "community," every person from the actual village should attend the meetings and share their personal thoughts and opinions. Especially since this village was pretty small, one member from every family could have shared their true desires. Community need not be homogeneous. A community is more like a group of people who have to interact on a daily basis. People for parity helps the community it surrounds, which is mostly Delhi University and IIT Delhi students. Thus, the community is the college campuses and the markets right outside of the colleges. Once you have identified the community's interactions and divides, a group of volunteers can choose to deal with specific types of people and ideas present in the community. This way there is a representative for each type of person and not a representative for a non-existing "homogeneous" group. Each volunteer works with their part of the community. Together, everyone is working on the community to make it a better place in whatever way. Yes, the nature is definitely complex. Volunteers and members of the community must make a full effort to engage. Only then is engagement possible. It's a two-way relationship. You must know enough to empathize with them and listen to their ideas. They must know you enough to trust letting you represent their ideas. A government exists due to factions. A community exists because of its divides. Our job is not necessarily to extinguish the divides, but it is definitely to notice the non-homogeneous society and to give or find fair representation.

Grant Interview and Week 7 EdGE

I had my grant interview on Friday, March 13th (Friday the thirteenth. SPOOKY).  I think it went pretty well. If I get the grant, I have no need for my Kick starter or indiegogo, which will save me a lot of time and money. I would love to become an Omprakash Ambassador. The idea of being responsible for all my actions and representing such a selfless team will induce a sense of respectfulness and leadership inside of me. The interviewers asked me how I would spread the word and work of Omprakash. I will ask UTD this week if they could consider adding the EdGE course as part of their curriculum.  I will also ask the faculty members in my school to spread the word of the website and organization for future thesis students. Just through my thesis, I should be able to spread the word by mouth and media. I am creating an organization/website that will help perpetuate this process. After my ideas are concrete, I will present them to Steve Sclar, my thesis mentor, Kelly Rula, and my EdGE mentor, Barclay Martin. The Omprakash team has done plenty to help me out with my thesis and my personal progress.

EdGE Week 7

www.bbc.com/news/world-asia...

I am going to give a little background to this story. BBC made a documentary named "India's daughter" and was going to air the film on Women's Day. The documentary narrates the Delhi gang rape in 2012. There was a halt in the execution because India's politicians wanted to ban the film since it introduced a rapist and gave him a platform to speak on. It was aired in some European countries for a few hours, and it created a huge divide between leaders and common folks in India. The people for the ban think that it will tarnish India's name more than necessary and that the documentary portrays an untrue picture. "India's daughters" is a huge generalization and blame. The people against the ban agree that the horrendous night should be explained to people around the world. This could be related to two themes: "good intentions and unintended consequences" and "third sector forces." This documentary was made obviously with good intentions, I hope; however, there are so many ramifications that BBC missed. There are always two sides or two factions. Videos like this could invigorate parties from both sides and splits them even more instead of bringing them together. Women could hate men even more. However, this video wasn't made for women to start hating men. It was to raise awareness about this heinous incident. Not everyone sees it this way, and since media does not direct how the viewers should view the video, more problems could be made instead of solutions. However, there are many positive aspects at the same time. Media acts as a "third sector" force. It ties up the loose ends after things go through the public and private sector. These two sectors are more about business and money and distribution. Third sectors introduce a "human" aspect to their business or organization. They can bring more to the table than just financial profits. Sometimes an argument just suggests that the topic was important enough to even argue about. To get a whole country arguing means that the whole country cares or has opinions about this topic: women's rights. It is a good start. It gets gears turning. BBC acted as a third sector that introduced a debate that is healthy for India to develop. It gives another chance for the quiet ones to roar. It has been three years since the Delhi case; this ban revived the momenta. To me, banning or not banning the documentary is not the problem. Women's rights is. This documentary will not fix or worsen this issue because the issue is not so small that it can just tip over because of a mere video. People should not make the ban the issue. They should redirect the problem back to the true issue: "stripping basic rights from women."

Question Time!!!

A scenario was given to me. There is a couple who makes belts in a rural village. Chrissie, a businesswoman, approaches them to expand their business by taking it to the USA. Alex, a critic, presses that expanding the business would not be good for the local economy and that Chrissie should stay a while in the village to see for herself. I was asked to choose a side.

My response:
I think one must step into the belt maker's lives to truly understand how the husband and wife really contribute to the community. After this week's lesson, I think I would support Alex. This situation looks very similar to the Haiti case study in this week's lesson. The "beneficiary" or the producers (husband and wife) have very little decision-making power and benefits from expanding their business to the USA. Their lifestyle would not alter as much, and they will have to work for greater periods of time. Even if Chrissie manages to build a factory and hire the fellow villagers, they would not be paid more than a couple of dollars a day in order to make great profits. Right now, some villagers sell their crops in the produce market, some weave baskets, some sell handmade clothes, and some make belts. There is variety. If these same villagers are pulled in to work to make belts, market variety reduces. Also, the workers are not autonomous anymore. They cannot schedule their own day, split their profits into how they see fit, and change merchandise design. There is very little progress in this type of business. Also, it does very little to help the local economy. I am going to prove this with some basic economics. Suppose this village is in Bangladesh. The reserve requirement for Bangladesh is around 6%. The money multiplier is around 16. 67 (1/.06). If this village's market produces 5000 takas (Bangladeshi currency) a day, the most money the market can produce is about 83, 333 takas (16.67 * 5000 takas). This depends on the velocity of the money: how many times the money circulates in the market and how many exchanges are made. However, if the belts are exported to USA, the profits are received in dollars. There are no takas added to the market; there is less of the currency being exchanged and circulated, reducing the maximum amount of money the village can produce. It may help the individual workers, but it will not benefit the local economy as a whole. The workers are indirectly helping the businesswoman and USA's economy more than they are helping their own economy. If Chrissie wants to help the village, it is a better idea that she experiences the community and learns of their true needs. Since she is a smart businesswoman, she will immediately learn how vital their own individual markets are to the community. There is no need to expand the belt market. If she wants, she can buy a large amount of belts from the husband and wife herself and sell it in USA, which helps both her and the local village.