‘Women with Wings’ is a project proposed by the International Services Avenue of the Rotaract Club of IIT, which pursues the theme of women empowerment, which endures the goal of being a guiding light for the youth women to reinforce their personalities, lead them to a brighter future and inspire them to be independent and be whomever they want to be in the future.

The Women with Wings seminars were held on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th of March 2021, which was conducted via Zoom at 6.30 as the 1^st session and at 7.30 as the 2^nd session for a day.  These sessions were cherished by 10 well recognized local guest speakers who inspired every individual participant with their respective topic which credited these events with success.

We started the virtual session on the 22nd of March 2021, with our first speaker madam Nilshani De Silva. She is a unique individual, who is 22 years old born with Down’s Syndrome. At birth, she had a hole in the heart and a cleft palate and underwent corrective surgery at just 1 year old, she was also diagnosed with myoclonic jerks and spontaneous dislocation of her hips. She successfully underwent treatments for all the above, however, her speech and walking were considerably delayed as a result. She successfully completed her GCE Ordinary Level and Advance Level Examinations in an inclusive setting at a mainstream school in Colombo, also received an Outstanding Achievement Award and the coveted Blue All Rounder Cord as a Senior Girl Guide. Madam Nilly was a member of a renowned choir and theatre company and performed at several musical and theatrical events. She works full time as a craft teacher at her alma mater, Bishop’s College. Madam Nilshani is also a popular motivational speaker; she also received the Reaching of the Stars Award by the Sri Lanka Association for Child Development.

Madam Nilshani insight our audience with her topic ‘My Journey Through Life’, which gave our audience the courage to make their dreams come true when they are facing difficulties, just as the sayings goes “Always remember that a rainbow appears only after the rain” and “You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated” Maya Angelou.

Our second speaker for the day 22nd of March 2021 was madam Tarangee Mutucumarana who represented Yeheilya Foundation. She is an Attorney at Law and a Barrister of England and Wales. She holds a Master of Law from the University of London in Criminal Justice and Criminology and has completed her studies at the University of Colombo in the field of Forensic Medicine and Science. While miss Tarangee was working as a Junior Defense Counsel in the chambers of a President’s Counsel, she also volunteers with several Civil Society Organizations in the fields of Human Rights and empowerment of Women and Youth. Madam Tarangee insight us with her topic ‘Sexual violence and rape’, which gave us a better understanding of how to react and what to do in such a situation as the saying goes, “Shatter the silence. Stop the violence.”

Our third speaker for the project Women with Wings and the first speaker for the day 23rd of March 2021 was madam Ravshana Bakkhrami Atash, who was a foreign speaker. She is from Azerbaijan; she has spent about 15 years of her life in Russia and moved to Turkey in 2007. Firm and she works as a lawyer. She studied in Antalya Akdeniz University Law faculty and now she is a partner of the M&R Law She is the current President of Antalya Rotaract Club, she is a Rotaractor for the past 5 years.Madam Ravshana insight us with her topic ‘Importance of women participating in civil law and importance of education’, which helped us to understand these two important topics. “The education and empowerment of women throughout the world cannot fail to result in a more caring, tolerant, just, and peaceful life for all” Aung San Suu Kyi.

Our fourth speaker for the project Women with Wings and the second speaker for the day 23rd of March 2021 was Chamathka Ratnayake. She is the of Director – Yeheliya Foundation. She is an Attorney-at-Law- and holds the Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Lancaster, England and submitted her thesis in Post-Conflict Reconciliation in Sri Lanka. She currently works as a Junior Counsel in the Chambers of President’s Counsel Dr. Harsha Cabral. She has also worked at the Sri Lankan Mission to the United Nations in New York, where she gained invaluable insights into the inner workings of the United Nations and intergovernmental collaboration on pressing issues. She is passionate about human rights and looks to work towards uplifting the lives of many through her work. She gave us an amazing insight into women in politics, under representation and how for so long decisions have been made for women’s rights have been made by others on behalf of us.

Our fifth speaker for the project Women with Wings and the first speaker for the day 24th of March 2021 was Sakie Ariyawansa. She is the cofounder Women Without Borders, Sri Lanka, that strives to create impactful and accessible learning experiences for the youth. She currently works as a Visa Counselor Officer at the Royal Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi. She spoke on the very important topic of how your gender should not determine whether you get an education or not. This was a much-needed conversation to be had as there are still many young girls out there who don’t get an education and not given the freedom of having ambitions just because of the fact that they are girls. Sakie gave us a lot of insight into the work that she does to help these young women and how we can all do our part in making a change.

Our sixth speaker for the project Women with Wings and the second speaker for the day 24th of March 2021 was Stefana Muller, a foreign speaker from the United States. She is an award winning, senior level executive with over 20 years of experience in technology, software development, and product management. She is currently the Senior Director of the Technical Product Management and CTO program Office at Oscar Health working to refactor healthcare to build richer connections and take the best care of its members. Stefana is a proven DevOps expert who specializes in Agile Software Development. In her spare time, she is the founder and president of Long Island Women in Tech, a nonprofit focused on advocating for women to help them enter and excel in the tech industry. She gave us a great insight on how we as women can play to our strengths and excel in the tech industry’. She also gave some great tips on how to be confident and to inspire other women to join the tech field.

Our seventh speaker for the project Women with Wings and the first speaker for the day 25th of March 2021 was Bernadine Jayasinghe. She is the managing Director / CEO of Sirius Academy (Pvt) Ltd. MD Institute of Essential studies pvt ltd (IES). An entrepreneur, lecturer and Corporate Trainer, Award Winning News Anchor & a President Award Winning TV Presenter (MTV/MBC). She is also an Award-Winning Public Speaker and she is one of the youngest people in the world to receive the title of Distinguished Toastmaster of Toastmasters International. She came on to talk about why we need to empower women and gave as an inspiring session about why we as women need to support and motivate one another. A key takeaway from her session is how we need to stop comparing ourselves to others and instead think about how we can be successful and work towards our goals.

Our eighth speaker for the project Women with Wings and the second speaker for the day 25th of March 2021 was Nura mohammed, who is a foreign speaker. She is a student studying architecture at the University if EiABC, Ethiopia. She is the local committee president for AIESEC in EiABC and the board member of the Rotaract club of Fanis, Ethopia. Nura mohammed insight us with her topic “importance of women participation in the field architecture, graphics and technology”. She motivated us to participate in this filed and made us realized how women can be in the same level as men.

Our ninth speaker for the project Women with Wings and the first speaker for the day 26th of March 2021 was Dr.Charuni senanayake. She is a life coach in women empowered global, she is currently working as the head of priority health by Lanka hospitals, General practitioner, and a professional life coach. Dr.Charuni senanayake topis was “how mental stress can affect you physically and stress busting technique”. She made us realize that how stress affects us in several ways, both physically and emotionally. And how to identify the signs of stress and how to overcome it. specially to protect our self from stress

Our tenth speaker for the project Women with Wings and the second speaker for the day 26th of March 2021 was Monina Ashan, who is a foreign speaker. She is pursuing a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the university of Agriculture Faisalabad, has served as Former united nations civic education volunteer, and currently serving as campus director UAF hult prize program, as a Rotaractor she is currently engaged in serving the community by different projects like sexual assault, women empowerment etc. Further she is the secretary-Elect Rotaract club of Faisalabad city of gold. Her topic was “how has the status of women changed over the years? Are they being empowered?”. She helped us to understand how women have changed compared to before, they are strong and fight for their rights. But also, she walked us through how women are treated unequally.

The physical session organized by Women with Wings was held at the Royal Skills center in hall 301 on 27^th of March 2021 from 4 PM to 6 PM. The team invited 2 guest speakers Naushalya Rajapaksha and Kayalvili Mathavaram to inspire both women and men who joined with us.

Our first speaker was Naushalya Rajapaksha who is an attorney at law and the founder of the yeheliya foundation. She spoke about laws affecting girls and women in Sri Lanka and she informed us to bring it to the relevant authorities if some certain things happen without our consent and never let another woman go through the same thing as we did, she also spoke about sexual harassment, gender stereo types, rape, and domestic violence.

Our second speaker was Kayalvili Mathavaram who is a banker by profession – working at HSBC, who has been in the Rotaract movement since 2015. She has been holding the positions of community service director (2016-17), secretary (2017-18), president (2018-19) and Treasurer (2019-20) at the Rotaract Club of Wellawatte. She currently serves as the Rotaract District Secretary of Rotary International District 3220 Sri Lanka and Maldives. She spoke about how this pandemic helped women to empower and about various social issues that a woman can come across while engaging in volunteering and how to overcome such  problems .

Thirdly we had a small Q and A session where our participants asked questions like self-defense and the challenges that they faced and those were addressed by our guest speakers.

In conclusion our physical session was very impactful because during a pandemic we were able to gather participants and had a proper discussion about the issues that women face today. The physical session was very successful, and things went accordingly.