The Rotary Club of Falmouth, Cape Cod, has recently received a district grant to fund a Tutoring Room in a Learning Center in Kolkata, India, being built by Her Future Coalition. The grant is part of the Rotary International initiative for the Empowerment of girls and women. Her Future Coalition is an organization started in 2005, by Sarah Symons, a woman who was then living in Sandwich, Ma., to help survivors of human trafficking. Since then, HFC has helped over 4000 women and girls to find hopeful futures after surviving slavery.The president of Rotary International, Shekhar Mehta, has encouraged the empowerment of girls and women to prevent the scourge of human trafficking, as part of his focus for Rotary clubs around the world. The Falmouth Rotary club has taken up his challenge, and has a subcommittee which supports the work of Her Future Coalition in India and Nepal. The Learning Center is being built in the Sonagachi section of Kolkata, which is a red light district. The goal is the prevention of trafficking and re-trafficking of young women who need skills and education to escape from the predatory practices found in these areas.
Several Falmouth Rotary members help tutor at a school in a remote part of Nepal, a school which HFC founded to prevent the cycle of poverty and trafficking that had become an entrenched part of the culture there. The Falmouth Rotary club heard a fascinating talk over zoom by Anjali Tamang, a former trafficking victim, enslaved at the age of 12, who was freed after a year and a half. A highly courageous young woman, she received the counseling needed to put her trauma behind her, pursued an education and went back to her village to found the Nepali school with the help of Her Future Coalition. Her book, called "Standing in the Way, From Trafficking Victim to Human Rights Advocate" (available online), details her journey.
Along with the district grant of $3,000 to support the Learning center in Kolkata, and the tutoring program in Nepal, the Rotary Club is selling International Cookbooks to fund more programs of Her Future Coalition, such as their jewelry training and financial literacy programs. The cookbooks have 126 recipes from 56 separate countries. They can be purchased through the Rotary club at falmouthrotarycapecod@gmail.com. Send cookbook inquiries to msrobinsinger@gmail.com.
The Rotary Club of Falmouth Cape Cod is open to new members and welcomes adults of all ages and backgrounds.