"Life is a work in progress so keep working hard."- Cherry Sharma

 

From listening about the horrendous crimes against women happening around you to experiencing how patriarchy is uprooted in the tiniest of things really makes one think about how unequal the world actually is. I always had this urge to do something about it– make a difference, raise a voice– but never really took any solid action. Let’s be honest here, posting some stories on your private Instagram account can only do a little. Real change can happen when you bring people together who are passionate about the same causes and then work towards it. Following a couple of feminist social media pages introduced “girlupcampaign” on my feed. Researching more about the “girlupcampaign’ encouraged me to start my own club “Girlupjosh”. Girl Up was founded by the UN Foundation in 2010 as an initiative to help support UN agencies that focus on adolescent girls. They provide leadership opportunities to young girls all over the globe. This provided me with an opportunity to make a real change.

Starting Girl Up Josh really created an impact in my life. Working together with 29 other incredible women really gave me a hope that there is still a chance for improvement in this world. I have a new sense of confidence to face the real world and the fact that I did something, even if it’s very small in the grand scheme of things makes me feel proud of myself. We as a team organized two fundraiser events- Umang (Online Concert) and Meraki (Online Fest) and collected a total of ₹38,400 which went towards helping underprivileged children impacted by Covid-19 and distributing around 8000 sanitary napkins to socially deprived women.

For the longest time, I thought that I am not in a position to create an impact or that I do not have the right resources, but I was wrong. In this techno-savvy world, opportunities lie right at your fingertips. You just have to dig deep and find the right one for you. There is no fixed age or level of experience that is needed to make a difference for the better. The right time is now.

I am forever grateful for this journey and I’ll only look forward from here.

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