BIS #2286 EMPOWERING SHGs WITH CULINARY SKILLS

Jimson Lopes
MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 16, 2011: Joy was visible on the faces of the participants of the two Self Help Groups (SHGs) from REAP (Reach Education Action Programme) an NGO based at Thane, as the women gathered on the campus of Don Bosco Centre for Learning (DBCL) on January 19, 2011 to be certified on Culinary skills.


The Director of REAP Fr. Trevor Miranda, sj was present along with nineteen women at the felicitation programme coordinated by Mr. Jimson Lopes, Field Coordinator - DBIT under the guidance of Mr. Lavy A. D’Costa. A total of thirty women had successfully completed the culinary course.

The highlight of the afternoon was a PowerPoint presentation capturing the intensity of the culinary skills the women developed during the five-day program, the two groups spent at DBCL in April and July, 2010.

A plan was in place to have a novel way of celebrating the event. Each of these women cooked a dish at their home and brought it along to the function. An observation must be made that the training though only for a five-day period had not gone waste. Innovation in each of these dishes was the key and these women went well beyond the recipes they had been trained on. It was a feeling of community as one and all shared the meals cooked.

The Chief Guest Mr. Xavier Fernandes, Principal of St. Joseph’s ITI while distributing the certificates cheered every participant on the dishes prepared that depicted splendor, colour and taste. The win-win situation for DBCL, REAP and the SHGs was that the women were geared to turn into entrepreneurs. As an outcome of the training, it was heartening to hear that one of the SHGs had received an order for ten thousand modaks - Empowerment of the Highest Order!!!