BENGALURU: SHEROES , the women-centric community platform, kicked off the first chapter of the SHEROES Summit 2018 in the city over the weekend. The multi-city event brought together women trailblazers, artistes and members of the SHEROES community, all under one roof to brainstorm how women could break the glass ceiling.
The sixth edition had Silicon Valley investor Alicia Holly Castillo of Women Get Funded, Priya Krishnan, brainchild behind the country’s largest corporate creche network, and Safeena Shaikh, who is spearheading initiatives to educate girls.
This year, at the newly-introduced bazaar corner, makers showcased their handmade products. Sairee Chahal, founder and CEO, SHEROES, said, “We also had a community panel, where early adopters of the app shared their real stories and experiences. This series included Sathiya Sundari, a beautician from a village from Tamil Nadu, who got onto the app with her smartphone, tapped into our helpline and gathered support and funding to successfully launch her own beauty parlour.” The event also featured some bold young slam poets such as Pooja Sachdeva and Gurmehar Kaur.
The platform currently has two million registered users and over half a million women on the app, in addition to 30-plus communities. A chat helpline enables women to engage in one-on-one conversations with counsellors. Sairee said, “We launched SHEROES to create a women-only platform that could help women connect, engage, support and grow. Since the launch of the app, we have seen increased engagement by women across communities, from diverse geographies. We aim to reach out to 100 million women.” The members include homemakers, gig economy professionals, entrepreneurs, single women, differently-abled women and millennials.
Sairee wanted to use technology to enable a safe and constructive online space where women can could expand horizons via opportunities and have social conversations. This, she says, was the trigger for SHEROES started a decade ago. “We often discuss how women can equip themselves with new skills to expand their career horizons. Another issue is domestic violence and suppression of womens’ desires. From Bengaluru, we have many aspiring entrepreneurs and techies wanting to reinvent themselves to stay current,” she said.