Women’s Empowerment Campaign Launched In Chicagoland

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More than 150 guests attended the Dec. 9, launch of the Women’s Empowerment Campaign at the Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows IL. India’s Consul General Neeta Bhushan, as well as business and community leaders attended.

“It was a great idea of the founders to start a womens empowerment group. It was much needed in Chicago and will go a long way,” Consul General Bhushan is quoted saying in a press release. The group which was founded through a collaboration between the Indian Consul General and Rita Singh, Shital Daftari and Dr. Anuja Gupta, presented the vision for the “WE POWER” campaign. The Ameya Dance Academy performed on the theme of women’s empowerment. “Chicago needed a strong womens group to represent the high level of success our community has seen in business, community service, arts & culture. The Womens Empowerment Group has filled a huge gap & has great potential in Chicago & also nationally” added Bhushan.

The Womens Empowerment Campaign was designed to create the largest networking and empowerment platform for Indian women in Chicagoland, the press release said. “We wanted to form a group that showed the power of Indian women in Chicago and do something that made a positive impact in our community” said the founders. The group plans to celebrate Women’s Day annually as a gala event

Singh, Daftari and Gupta are businesswomen “We had reached a point in our lives where we felt blessed by the community support we had and wanted to do something to give back to the community” Dr. Anuja Gupta, a physician and real estate developer of Verandah Retirement Community, is quoted saying. Daftari, an e-commerce business owner of Saris and Things, said, “We wanted to showcase how powerful Indian women were. I also wanted to inspire women to take the first step to living a life of their dreams and reaching their highest potential.”. Singh, who is an IT business owner and also has experience in show business said, “I had a very gratifying experience mentoring other people who wanted to start their own business and wanted to do it on a larger scale thru this platform. I wanted to make a meaningful difference in the Indian community”.

Several other women are part of the leadership team Uma Katiki, the 2017 vice-president & 2018 president of the Chicago Andhra Association, Vidya Joshi Vice-President of Maharashtra Mandal Chicago and secretary of BMM, Aparna Ayyalaraju and Rajani Akurati, on the board of directors of the Telugu Tristate Association, as well as Chandini Duvuuri founder of an NGO for battered women, Promila Kumar founder of Sanjeevani, Rosey Bhasin founder of Connections By Rosey, Namitha Pai founder of Happy Feet, Sushma Bhanot founder of Share A Smile Chicago, and Arshia Wajid founder of American Muslim Health Professionals.

The new organization also has several community partners. Some of the goals it outlined in its press release are, among others, raising awareness of existing resources and services in the community; showcasing and highlighting Indian women of excellence in various fields; providing a platform to network, and contemporary issues facing these women. The group can be found at ChicagoWE.com.