Men Against Violence Program
The Saheli Men against Violence (MAV) Initiative was graciously invited by Ragu Vaduka on behalf of the Corporate Cricket League of Mass to speak at the sports fields at Bicknell Street in Quincy on August 15, 2015. The outreach event was organized very creatively by Ramesh Advani, Chair of the Men’s Program at Saheli and Vandana Sharma, the South Shore program coordinator. Jane Doe Inc’s. Craig Bohm-Norberg also joined Saheli for the presentations.
Led by Dr. Rohit Chandra, the Saheli team presented two thought provoking skits. Sharon and Aaron Schiffer, a real life couple, argued about money, whether a wife should work and why tea was not served to the husband when he returned from work. Rohit, in the second skit, tried to be a helpful bystander in an apartment complex, when he heard loud noises and Sharon arguing with her husband.
At least 42 men (and four women) listened attentively. The CVS team won today’s cricket match by one point more than the IBM team. The creative and entertaining skits were written by Sharon. With Jonjy Ananth serving as discussant, a brief discussion followed with the cricketers, who are mostly from India, who made interesting observations. Vandana and Gouri passed out Saheli handouts and several men stopped by to sign pledges and discuss the Nirbhaya idea. Pradip Tandon and his dog conversed and circulated among the cricketers. It was a great awareness raising MAV initiative, put together by a great team.
We are very hopeful that Saheli’s work to prevent domestic violence will be passed on by the cricketers to many additional families. Raghu was very generous and declined Saheli’s offer to pay a fee.
Thank you Saheli Team, you did a great job.
