“Give a woman a dollar, and she can put it to good use. Teach her about how money really works, and she can change the world”
-Linda Davis Taylor, CEO and Chairman of Clifford Swan Investment Counselors
‘She Saves’, an insightful awareness program that was set to guide women towards a better future through enhancing their financial literacy, was brought into action on the 18th of September 2021 via Zoom platform by Sarvodya Fusion partnered with Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), alongside with the joint efforts of the Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Management and Finance, Rotaract Clubs of Centennial United, Excellence, Ja-ela, Kandana, Katugastota Region, Negombo, NIBM, Pamunugama and Wattala, along with Leo Club of Wattala.
Mrs. Menik Fernando started off her discussion with a brief, yet an interesting introduction on the identity and the significance held by females all around the world. She elaborated on the need for women to have financial interdependence and set her points on the importance of breaking through the stereotypical frame of “Women are to be seen, not to be heard” as every woman should hold her own voice for herself.
Running a few polls to make the audience more interactive, the session was then streamlined by the speaker towards the main focal point of discussion; Why, How, and What women save for. She first amplified on why a woman should save, through a detailed explanation of the purpose of saving.
She moved on with the discussion where she stated that the problem of indebtedness arises from unmanaged debts and pointed out what steps to be followed in order to dig your way out of indebtedness. She continued to educate the audience on annual planned expenses as well as emergency expenses (such as health issues, funerals, loss of income etc.) and explained how savings come as the savior when tackling both these expenses. It is simply because we want to live a good life and to have a comfortable retirement, the speaker stated as the answer to the question “why a person should learn to save.”
Taking the audience through an interesting part of the discussion, she shed her light upon “how to pursue one’s dreams” by sharing her own childhood memories and how she managed through these years to become the person that she is today. It is where she pin-pointed that, one should have a dream, plan a dream, and chase the dream, as it is the only way to reach the dream. The session was indeed informative thanks to the valuable information and insightful thoughts shared by Mrs. Menik Fernando.
As a commendable remark, it is worth mentioning that Sarvodya Fusion provided free data for all the session participants upon registration. The friendly approach taken by the speaker in explaining complex facts in its simplest form, was able gain undivided attention of participants until the very end and thus, ‘She Saves’, came to a successful closure amidst numerous positive feedbacks.
