Being the sponsorship director for FIU's IBHS, an organization that focuses on profesional development, leadership, communication and global skills, I was able to be the person in charge of creating opportunities of professional development for student members of the organization through workshops and events aimed at strengthening communication, networking and organizational skills.
Additionally, this opportunity of holding an executive board position allowed me to be part of Bandhwari service project. The Bandhwari project is an initiative aimed to develop women's empowerment in Bandwhari, India. It consists in Traveling to this village in India where there is a women's center where women make handicrafts. As an organization, we buy fabrics, we bring them to the women and they create the products. Products vary from tote bags to yoga bags, laptop cases, clutch bags etc. After our trip is over, we bring the products back to the United States, we sell the products and we send back 100% of the profits that we make back to the women and the women's center. This makes us a non-profit organization and a women's empowerment project which incentives economic and women's empowerment together with a significant and very meaningful exchange of cultures between the women and us, the students traveling to the village.
Another aspect and my favorite one of the trip is that we got to teach English to the elementary school located in the village. In few sessions we were able to teach basic English songs to the kids of the woman producers spending time with them and learning as much as them as they did from us.
This opportunity was significantly meaningful to me since I love kids, women's empowerment and traveling. It allowed me to learn everything about the Indian culture and traditions and to share some of mine too with them. Teaching the kids left me feeling so overwhelmed with love and gratitude for everything we have. It was an opportunity that changed my life forever.
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