Women of Substance

Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary Women

Rinku Saha DTM

Raise your hand if you agree, its possible for ordinary people to become extraordinary, when they believe in themselves. TMOD, fellow toastmasters and all the extra ordinary people out there. As you are aware, month of March is very special for women. Why? Yes, we celebrate Happy International women’s day. One of my toastmasters club was hosting an extended gala celebration on the occasion of International women’s day. The theme was United colors of women. We had total 5 events altogether. Each event was led by different club members. 5th Segment was Women of substance which was led by me. It was all about 5 ordinary womens' extra ordinary story.

I had a guiding team, they are Club President Deepti Potnis & Marcus Udikong. A team of three. Nagalakshmi who was the story proofreader, Pooja Saran was selected for all PR work, voice over and creating visual effects. And my work was to interact with those 5 inspirational women and collect their stories in desired format. Sumita- She is from Bangladesh. Kelly Kaur- from Singapore, Alma- She is from China. Andrea Mwalula- is from Tanzania, Rosita Smith- She is a Sri Lankan. These ladies were my heroes.

omen of substance

With the help of guiding team and my other team member, we published the first story. It was sumita’s story who dreamt to be a doctorate but due to family commitment, she did not have enough time to complete it at once. Her first child was born followed by second and third. But she did not give up on her dream. She kept studying and after her third child, she successfully completed her doctorate degree and now a pursuing her dream job as an engineer.

Second story is about Kelly Kaur who is from Singapore, a woman of color, migrated in Canada had a stage fright. Furthermore, she thought her stories will be not welcomed by her International audience. But one day her daughter told her, mama you can share your stories it will be fun. Kelly gathered all the confidence and joined a toastmasters club. She participated in club contest then she never stopped, she won club, area, division, district and reached till world’s stage. Third story about Alma, who moved from one city to another city in China to join her new job. Pandemic hit and she lost her job. But she switched her profession and started learning new thing, calligraphy. Now she opened her own calligraphy institute and teaching others. Fourth Story was about Rosita Smith, who shared her journey of elderly care when she life gave her an opportunity to serve her old Mother in Law.

Fifth Story was a story of a little girl from city of Kolkata in India, who dreamt to fly in the sky. Her persistence and attitude of never giving up on her dreams got her the job of Cabin Crew in one of the best aviation companies in the world. That little girl is today sharing her own story with you, Yes ! That's me Rinku Saha.