The International Women’s Day is devoted by all countries across the globe, to raise a cheer for all accomplishments and opportunities of women. The day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year, with events happening in major cities worldwide, marking a call to action for accelerating gender parity and many other aspects related to women.
The Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Management and Finance too contributed and formed part of the thriving global movement focused on women’s advancement by celebrating the International Women’s Day with the project “Elegante”.
The project Elegante organized by the public relations avenue was a product of a group of girls and a true manifestation of girl power. The project comprised of two phases that mainly focused on women’s health to help make their lives healthier, happier, and better.
Women, as the custodians of family health, play a critical role in maintaining the proper health of their family members. The famous slogan “Healthy Women, Healthy World” embodies the fact that healthy women lead to healthy communities and a more stable and stronger world.
In phase 1 of the project, we had Dr. Erandi Kularathne, the epitome of strong, independent women, not just a doctor at the base hospital of Panadura, but also a fantastic speaker who joined to talk to us about “Healthy Women for a Healthy Nation”.
The webinar was held online on the 8th of March with a great no. of participants joining the session. Our guest speaker, Dr. Erandi Kularathne started her speech by explaining how the modern world has shaped women into focusing more on their education and workplace, leaving them with less time to focus on themselves. She emphasized the importance of women taking care of themselves and their own health. The session highlighted 4 main non-communicable diseases that are preventable but cause more than 80% of annual deaths in Sri Lanka.
Our first focus was on cardiovascular diseases which are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels. Heart attacks and strokes are usually intense occasions and are caused by a blockage of the blood vessels due to built-up fat on inner walls that prevents blood from flowing to the heart or brain. Whereas strokes can be caused by bleeding from a blood vessel within the brain or from blood clots. Whereas non-communicable diseases such as Diabetes, which more than 10% of the population have been affected is a long-lasting health condition that affects how the body turns food into energy. Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and lung cancer are mainly caused by smoking and the most common cancer in females is breast cancer.
Causes for these diseases do not happen in one day and are created due to long-term effects. Therefore, it is essential to make daily healthy plans such as balancing diet, daily exercise, maintaining proper BMI, engaging in physical activity, avoiding alcohol and smoking, etc.
Phase 2 of the Project “Elegante” was conducted to support, protect, and empower a group of young girls through the donation drive for “Lawris Children’s Home”. The course made the way to makes the girls at the home feel loved and important.
The “Lawris Children’s Home” is currently serving as a home to 23 girls between the ages of 7-20 and the home runs back to 1973, when it was founded in Sri Lanka by the wife of the famous Sri Lankan educationalist and former principal of Nalanda College, Mr. D.C. Lawris. It has accepted more than 2,000 orphans since its establishment. Providing safety, care, and love to girls in need, Lawris Children’s Home is a beacon of hope and a place to call home to many young, orphaned girls.
We were able to donate the needy items such as undergarments, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, baby cream, detergent, face masks, etc. through the kind donations collected. We would like to thank everyone who joined hands with us in raising funds to sustain this compassionate establishment and it’s our pleasure to contribute to the education and well-being of 23 young girls in dire need of help.
Accordingly, the project “Elegante” successfully served the project goal to spread awareness of the importance of women taking care of themselves and to add a smile to the beautiful faces of a group of young girls.
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