Volunteer Uma Venkatraman shares her experience facilitating our workshops about gender issues and domestic violence and connecting with the participants.
“One of my highlights of volunteering with Saheli has been working on curriculum development for workshops about gender and domestic violence. Curriculum development and facilitation have been interests of mine for the past few years but I was excited to learn how to discuss these themes within the South Asian community. Through my time with Saheli, I was able to not only have these conversations, but also to consider how to facilitate workshops and create interactive activities that addressed these topics. I specifically remember working on a gender workshop with a fellow volunteer, Janhavi, in which we aimed to discuss gender identity with members of the Saheli team. The participants in the workshop reflected on the way that gender was discussed in their childhood, the specific gender roles they were taught, and how their perception of gender norms has changed since then. I appreciated that we were able to connect gender issues with South Asian history and explore the way that gender is discussed in the South Asian community–and it was an amazing experience to be in a South Asian space where people shared personal anecdotes. I look forward to hopefully being involved with similar events in the future!”
