Hats off to Jiff Sheffield, founder of “Women Deliver’ for her dedicated efforts in the field of improving Maternal health of women across the world. Mission of Women Deliver itself speaks volume about their objective of concern about women-Invest in Girls and Women – it pays!

Women  Deliver is a global advocacy organization working to generate political commitment and financial investment for fulfilling Millennium Development Goal5-to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductive health.  Ms Sheffield, the founder of Women Deliver  has achieved so many accolades that its not possible to introduce her in one line. Concerned majorly about women issues throughout Ms Sheffield is serving on the board of the Pangaea Global Aids foundation, she is also the founder of Family Care International(FCI).She founded FCI IN 1987 in response to call at the Women’s Decade Conference in Nairobi which identified the silent tragedy that one women dies each minute from pregnancy related causes.Ms Sheffield is also one of the few civil society representatives appointed to the UN Secretary Generals Commission of Information and accountability for women’s and children’s health.
Women Deliver is organizing Maternal and Reproductive Health Conference 2013 in Kaula Lampur on 28-30May.A number of influential leaders like Melinda Gates(Cochair Bill and Mellinda Foundation), Helen Clark(Administrator UNDP), Anuradha Gupta(Joint Secretary Ministry of Health , India), Michelle Bachelet(Under-Secretary-General and executive Director of United Nation Women)  and many others are confirmed to participate in Women Deliver’s third global Conference. .    Answers by Women Delivers to certain queries mentioned below itself proves the clarity of their purpose-

What are the critical issues that women face, especially in Southeast Asia?

Globally, more than 287,000 women die each year during pregnancy or child birth, and more than 200 million women want, but do not have access to, contraceptives. We have made progress for girls and women under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and the pace of change is accelerating. Since 1990, fewer women are living in extreme poverty, more women have access to modern contraception, and maternal deaths have nearly halved. But challenges remain, and progress is uneven across regions and countries.

Southeast Asia in particular showcases the promise, progress and continued challenges facing women’s health and equality.  The region has successfully reduced gender inequality in education, and has made remarkable progress in reducing maternal deaths. However, Asia and the Pacific continue to bear the brunt of maternal deaths — almost 40 percent of maternal deaths worldwide occur in the region.

Why is it that women still suffer from the above-mentioned problems nowadays?

Historically, women’s health issues have not been prioritized. In fact, progress toward MDG(Millennium Development Goal) 5 has been the slowest of all the MDGs – and it’s not for a lack of solutions that work. We know how to save women’s lives and increase access to contraceptives, but to do this successfully, we need both political will and financial commitments to deliver the services women want and need. For too long, maternal and reproductive health have been seen as “women’s issues,” but they are not. They are everyone’s issues. It is up to all leaders to ensure that these issues receive the attention and the funding they deserve

What this year’s conference will try to achieve ?

Taking place as discussions about the post-2015 development architecture are underway, Women Deliver 2013 will be a landmark opportunity to ensure that girls and women remain a development priority worldwide –and to hold leaders accountable for the impressive commitments they’ve made.We must move from promises to progress. With thousands of global influencers in the room, we can – and we will – generate the political will, financial investments and grassroots action needed to improve girls’ and women’s health and rights. -

How different is this year’s conference compared to previous years? For example, are there more participants than ever? Different themes being discussed?

This will be Women Deliver’s third global conference and we anticipate it will be our largest and most influential yet, with thousands of private and public sector leaders from 160 countries expected to attend.This will be the first time the conference is taking place in Asia, and as a result, progress and continued obstacles facing women’s health and equality in Asia will be a key focus. It’s also the first time the conference will be held in a predominantly-Muslim country, offering a unique opportunity to tackle pressing challenges in the broader Muslim world.

Womenlines wishes best of luck to Women Deliver for their future endeavours!

Malala, a Pakistani teen blogger is a symbol of defiance against militants. An outspoken critic of Taliban Malala came into news when she was shot head onOn 9 October 2012,  in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improvedand she was sent to a hospital in UK for  intensive rehabilitation.She is known for her education and women’s rights activism in her country where the  Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school. In early 2009, at the age of 11/12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls.

Malala’s undomineering courage has already helped her in achieving nomination for the InternatPaional Children’s Peace Prizeby Desmond Tutu and Nobel Peace Prize. The latest feather in her cap is that she has signed  a deal of $3 million to publish her memoir.and this is a incredible feat.The book, titled “I am Malala”, will be published by Weidenfeld & Nicholson in the UK and Commonwealth and by Little, Brown in the rest of the world.

If you are honest and courageous then sky is the limit for you!Womenlines wishes best of luck to Malala for her future endeavours.

The Pursuit of Happyness is a film based on real life story of Chris Gardner who is a famous entrpreneur, investor, stockbroker, motivational speaker, author and philonthropist.In early 1980s he struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son Christopher.  Gardner’s book of memoirs2006  is the base for the movie’ In pursuit of Happyness”. Directed by Gabriele Muccino, the film features Will Smith as Gardner, an on-and-off-homeless salesman-turned stockbroker. Smith’s son Jaden Smith co-stars, making his film debut as Gardner’s son Christopher Jr.

The unusual spelling of the film’s title comes from a sign Gardner saw when he was homeless. In the film, “happiness” is misspelled  as “happyness” outside the daycare facility Gardner’s son attends. The rousing, true-life story of a single dad who went from living on the streets to owning his own brokerage firm is brought to the big screen by superstar  Set in early-’80s San Francisco, the film charts the hard times and eventual comeback of Chris Gardner, a suddenly single salesman who has custody of his son, but finds that providing for the two of them is a challenge in the increasingly unstable economic climate. He struggles to work his way from unpaid intern at Dean Witter to something more substantial, even as life continues to offer him setbacks.

Film portrays a beautiful message that whatever are the conditions in your life, how much  low you are feeling, it is only your determination to succeed going to help you in raising your standards. So never stop dreaming. If you have a dream just go for it.

There is a lady named Immaculee Ilibagiza whose life was transformed during  1994 Rwandan genocide when she with seven other women spent 91 days silently together in a cramped bathroom of a local pastor’s house.Isn’t it unbelievable?

Immaculae was a 115 pound university student with a loving family. When she came out of the bathroom she weighted only 65 pounds and her whole family was murdered.And what helped her in surviving?Prayers! Yes she prayed continuously for 91 days, from morning when she opened her eyes till night. Her father gave a set of rosery beads to her before she went for hiding.She began to pray the rosary as a way to come out of her negativity.Through prayer, she was able to  forgive her tormentors and her family’s murderers.Immaculée’s strength in her faith helped her her to stare down a man armed with a machete threatening to kill her during her escape. She also later came face to face with the killer of her mother and her brother and said the unthinkable, “I forgive you.”Above all Immaculée learnt English with only a bible and a dictionary in that tiny bathroom and this helped her to get a job at UN later.

Immaculae’s story shows the power of belief and faith. In such circumstances she was not only  able to survive but she was able to forgive her tormentors too.That’s the power of belief and prayer.We get troubled with small problems in our daily life and here is this woman with such amazing faith. Hats off to her for her courage and faith!

Singapore is a heaven for Chinese food and is considered to be  real heaven for gourmets. While I was working for sometime I tried my hands on local chinese vegetarian food during my lunch time. I will not say that my taste buds were impressed but yes I found it light in comparison to our Indian food which is rich by nature. Finally I decided to try my hands on it , to bring some variety in our daily food menu. I was surprised that efforts were not wasted and now my family has become a big fan of Chinese vegetarian food.

I started with vegetable soup in which I used lemon grass first time and it gave an amazing taste to soup. Using only vegetables in the soup and adding little lemon juice to it made the juice lighter and it really acted as a starter. Otherwise previously when we had our regular chinese soup full of sauces, it itself acted as a meal. For the main course I experimented with mushroom, chestnuts, broccli, chye sim,  eggplant and baby corn. Mixed vegetables with addition of light soya sauce and vinegar and toppinhg it with red chilly flakes made it an awsome meal to be taken with rice or noodles. Mung Bean Sprouts is the other chinese addition in vegetarian dishes.The crunchy texture and nutritional qualities of mung bean sprouts make them a popular addition to meals.

It’s not just about the taste. It’s important that Chinese vegetarian dishes display a harmonious balance of colors and textures as well as flavors.It is worth trying and highly recommended to those who look for healthy recipies with some experiments in taste!

Womenfolk lives revolve around so many close to heart stories that can teach others a lot about various experiences in life. The sensitivity and beauty of womanhood is awsome and it helps every woman to survive in this world with her inner power  and confidence. Its a beautiful journey which every woman goes in her life starting  as a daughter, then crossing various stages of sister, wife, friend, Mother, and finally grandmother. Every stage is itself a story which carries some strong message in it. Platform ‘Made By You’ created by Femina is surely a brilliant idea and thus going to help many ladies around to share about their experiences.

Femina has built it’s success around its over-all connect with the progressive Indian woman in every aspect of her life.  It will feature the work of hundreds of new “journalists” and is scheduled to hit stands in April 2013. The publication will pose as a platform for real women to unveil their talent and share their stories with readers across the country. Contributors can use Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest to share their editorial ideas on a varied range of topics.

Link to an Application on Femina’s facebook page, that enables fans to submit their sample articles – http://on.fb.me/13LDVaf

Twitter-   https://twitter.com/FeminaIndia

Take the benefit of Femina’s Motto “If you’ve got a story, We’ve got the space!” and share your story with whole world!

http://www.indusladies.com/forums/blogs/induslady/indusladies-4th-annual-international-women-8412/

It’s not easy being a mother.  If it were easy, fathers would do it.  ~From the
television show The Golden Girls

Motherhood, though challenging phase,  is  still a blessing to any woman. It has an humanizing effect on the mother and thus the child is blessed by her care and affection!

Few years back when world of woman revolved around her family and home only, the period of motherhood was a very different experience compared to present one. In today’s times things have changed , women are playing various other roles too besides  of homemaker.After having a baby  when she gets back to work she has to be dependent upon extra help from either maids, day care or support system in family.So the real challenge which comes for any working mother is how to bond with her baby and provide and nurture her with motherly love and affection.

Few families in which parents of the couple are able to provide the support for some limited time find themselves really blessed.As parents are more experienced definitely they are going to take better care but  sometimes clashes happen due to different ways of thinking about parenting.Then the challenge comes to make them understand the importance of their way of thinking and how it is going to benefit the baby.

Baby grows and crosses toddler stage , kid stage and then he enters that phase when his character has to be built and he has to learn about good eating habits. The challenge lies here for any mother, whether she is working or homemaker, to teach the importance of values like gratitude, honesty and other moral values. Media and peer pressure has affected children to that limit that they have started considering their parents guidance as boring lectures only. When they see glamour of media and how their friends enjoy certain things while hiding from their family, it becomes challenging for them to ignore it.

Families in today’s era  is using all modern gadgets and that too is available separately for every member of the family. Whether it is Laptop, Iphone, Ipad, Game console, kids are aware of the gadget lingo and have the expertise to use it. Challenge lies here for any mother to how to allow the controlled usage of gadgets by kids and how to save them from the negative effect of using such gadgets.

Being a mother every women wants best for her child and puts her very best efforts to give that atmosphere at home which can help in inculcating good habits in them.But  the way society is changing  mothering today is really becoming challenging!

Its interesting to know about writers Prachi Gupta and Dhruv Gupta’s book on topic of weight loss-’Loosing It’.The contest organised by them for sharing of  different experiences related to journey in weight loss is good chance to know about real life stories regarding weight loss efforts.Visit http://www.losingit.fitho.in/the-losing-it-contest/
to know more about the contest.

I was never fat! But married life and motherhood gave me reasons to enhance my awareness regarding ways to control my weight and be fit.The thing which I always resisted was spending money in gym for weight loss. Therefore I was alert, always, to take a note of weight loss method which can be carried from home.  

Motherhood experience brings the major change in any woman’s body.I also put 10 kgs extra weight after my first pregnancy.I was not able to take it. My inner soul was desperate to try all lovely dresses and get back to my previous jeans as soon as possible. Because somewhere I had a feeling if once I put on weight it will be very difficult to get back to normal. So I had to act instantly.First of all I started having a vision of the shape I wanted for myself. I strongly believe in the concept of visualization where you have to create a vision of your dream in your mind. I have been working from home most of the time, this gave me right time to devote for my fitness regime.Then I focussed what things can I follow regularly to keep a strict discipline for my weight loss regime. I started walking and made sure that I was listening to music during my walks.. It gave me immense relaxation. Slowly I observed that the more I was relaxed the more mindful I became about my eating habits. Yoga came as a blessing to me for getting more relaxation in life.  As I started getting mindful, it helped me in positive parenting too.

Being an Indian I love Indian food.I just can’t resist fried food. After being mindful I got back to my normal food habits. I never curbed my desire to eat my favourite food, but I focussed on the quantity. I experienced that the more I curb my desire to eat my favourite food , the more fat I was putting on, because though I was not eating but I was visualizing  fat food  in my mind , so this effected negatively for my weight loss efforts.I got back to my normal weight in 6 months time.It requires discipline, and only discipline to lead a healthy life. My discipline helped me to adopt healthy lifestyle forever.

Being slim not only helps me look better but I feel active too. Its all about that feel which gives me confidence and motivates me to take care for my  family with passion!

I am not in authority of any  psychologist that I am questioning about the reliability of online friends. Initial pleasure of people getting added on my facebook list gave me a social boost and perhaps to my business but somewhere I was missing personal touch of chai sessions of my friends. I mean , how can you enjoy friendship virtually by just liking one friend’s status, or photographs or sharing about whats happening in our life. Social media sharing appeals to  me as I am living in a foreign country and it gives me a feeling of being in touch with people, friends and relatives whom I am not meeting regularly. I really admire Mark Zuckerberg creation which has made the world smaller.But he himself must be having his closed friends group with whom he must be meeting personally and not virtually:).

Friendships cannot be carried virtually. The personal touch of gossip, leg-pulling, sharings cannot be compared with online sharing of friendship. As it is said “True friends are like jewels, precious and rare, false one are like autumn leaves found everywhere.”Don’t take your real friends for granted. Give them your time because they deserve it.At the time when you require your friends most then only real friends come to you and not your virtual friends.

Don’t let your real friends go away from you because of your virtual friends. You are a living being. Start living your life in real terms and not virtually!

Meditation is defined as a practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces mode of consciousness either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself!”

I came across this definition somewhere and I was perplexed.  I always wondered how come mind will have time to think to train itself for some relaxation. I have been working from home mother most of the time in my life.Atimes its really challenging for me to manage myself when inflicted with lots of emotions at the same time. As per friend’s suggestion I thought of trying  out meditation to balance myself.Cannot forget the first effort as I simply laughed at myself that how is it possible to sit for a minute also without thinking about anything. How can I even think about it.Our mind is always cluttered with thoughts and idea to make it thoughtless was not digestible to me. But still I was curious that why it is getting so popular.I started trying and it took few years to have a feel of it.I am still not that good in meditating , but yes I have started having a feel of  it.As I am growing, especially after becoming a mother I realize how important it to meditate every day . In a way it should be taken as a regular habit for us and we should not take it for granted. In fact practice of meditation should be taught in schools so that present generation can become strong enough to face life adversities in future.

In rat race of life we almost forget how to live and get used to a robotic way of life. Every individual in family is running towards his goals to achieve abundance and success. Happiness we want  to seek by achieving material goal is momentry only. Meditation helps us to realize who we are and where are we going, besides it also helps in relaxation.Our life is revolving around digital devices and in a way we have started living in virtual world.24/7 we are thinking about how to win this rat race as if we are going to miss something by not participating in it.Happiness cannot be quantified and we are only happy when we are growing in all aspects of life weather it is physical health, material life and also the most important aspect of our life that refers to spiritual health. As we have become too individualistic and consumer obsessed its very important for us to be in real touch of our true self, and meditation helps us in this journey.The benefits of meditation include better health, higher creativity and better personal relationships. Meditation helps us to reduce stress by guiding us to switch off from worries. Meditation is an opportunity to spend time with  ourselves, and be comfortable with ourselves. Spending 15 minutes in quietening the mind and focusing on the present moment, makes us more relaxed and effective decision makers.In fact researches have proved that mindfulness achieved by meditation helps us to increase density of grey matter and thus making our brain more active.Finding from the other research proved that meditation helps in reducing heart diseases.

Healthy body helps in living life happily with passion. So why not try something which helps you to achieve  a healthy body. Happy Meditation!