Myna Mahila Foundation

Myna Mahila Foundation creates a network of young female entrepreneurs in urban slums and rural communities to empower women (school drop-outs and unemployed women from very poor households) by improving their health and by providing them with a means of livelihood. We hope to create a safe and healthy space for women to work, learn, and share their stories. We will also provide resources, mentorship, and guidance to young girls (and their families) about to start their careers, and to mothers, their families and children, so the mothers can be financially independent. We hope to educate women in skills they currently lack in communication, business, financial & economic literacy, leadership, and health. Further, we want to encourage women to talk about their bodies and health to create a movement around menstrual hygiene, sanitation, domestic violence, sexual assault, and any other topic that women are afraid to discuss aloud. We want to create a cultural revolution to break societal taboo so women start to speak up and talk, just like the common Indian bird Myna. Myna Mahila Foundation is intended to be managed by local women from slum or rural communities, where they currently have little voice and financial stability. We want to increase the standard of living for these women as they demand for their rights, are healthier and better skilled, have better guidance, resources, and mentorship, and work for the betterment of their own communities.