From being a pillar of strength to her husband, loving mother to her kids, a companion to her friends and a professional, one has seen army wives step into myriad roles.
Army wives welfare Association (AWWA), Eastern Command helmed by Nisha Kalita, Regional President AWWA, organised a unique event at Kolkata.
The event provided a public platform and an opportunity to selected AWWA members to share their stories with other members of the sisterhood. The stories encompassed a wide spectrum ranging from tales of entrepreneurial success, triumphing over personal challenges, soul stirring sagas of abuse, surviving a terror attack and tackling hard times in life head on. The stories were of personal triumph, turning the tide in one’s favor and prevailing through the challenges and tough times without losing heart or giving up on life even in face of adversity. In turn, these stories provide motivation, instill confidence and offer support and courage to other members to persevere and overcome any challenges they may face.
The Chief Guest on the occasion was Padmashree awardee Dr Sudha Kaul, Vice Chairperson IICP (Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy) Kolkata, a renowned activist in the field of care giving and inclusive life for specially abled person affected by Cerebral Palsy. Shashi Jain, Image Consultant, Soft Skills Trainer and Life Coach was the guest speaker for the event.
The event was curated and mentored by team Lokesh Nathany, Storytelling & Public Speaking coach and TEDX speaker along with Anupriya Chowdhary, My Story coach, author and founder of Wonder Skill.
The event on 11th February 2023 was the culmination of a process that started 2 months ago. Starting with getting members to register, going through their stories, conducting a workshop to hone the skills of the selected participants to finally picking up the most impactful stories.
The selected stories were presented to a packed auditorium and were shared across Eastern Command as members from many military stations joined the event virtually.
The Chief Guest, Dr Sudha Kaul too felt that this was a forum or place where she too could share her own story.
The event ended with felicatation programme. Nisha Kalita felicitating the Chief Guest, the guest speaker, the curators and mentors and of course all the AWWA speakers who shared their stories. AWWA Eastern Command hopes to conduct more such events in their efforts towards empowering army wives.
Report- Pratyusha Mukherjee
