Women Helping Women, Helping Themselves
25th May 2011

The British Asian Trust, Dasra and HSBC hosted a panel discussion entitled 'Women Helping Women, Helping Themselves' with award-winning social entrepreneur Chetna Sinha, founder of the Mann Deshi Foundation as the guest speaker. The event, held at the splendorous HSBC building in St James's Street London on Wednesday 25th May 2011, saw moderator Anjalika Bardalai, Senior Analyst for South Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit, interview Ms Sinha and British Asian entrepreneur and philanthropist Seema Sharma on their experiences of working with women in India.

Ms Sinha spoke about how the Mann Deshi Foundation has helped transform poor rural women into successful entrepreneurs by providing access to finance and business education and how these women are now driving forward social change in India. Both speakers outlined some of the challenges they have faced and took time to answer questions from the audience that comprised UK men and women engaged in philanthropy in South Asia.

About The British Asian Trust

Founded by With HRH The Prince of Wales and led by the community, The British Asian Trust transforms lives by investing in charities making the greatest impact on poverty in South Asia and the UK. The Trust works for lasting change by increasing the power of charitable giving in the critical areas of education, health and livelihoods. It has achieved considerable milestones in a short period of time: 11 charities have been supported, 350,000 lives have been touched and £1million in matched funding has been leveraged through 4 major co-funders.

For further information, visit www.britishasiantrust.org

About Dasra

Dasra is India's leading strategic philanthropy foundation, working with philanthropists and successful social entrepreneurs to bring together knowledge, funding and people as a catalyst for social change. Dasra scales non profit organisations and social businesses in order to help accelerate change and transform lives. Dasra has 11 years experience in the Indian social sector, a depth of knowledge gained from working with over 200 non profits and has brought £5.5 million in funding to organisations.

For information visit www.dasra.org

About Mann Deshi Foundation

Mann Deshi transforms poor rural women into successful entrepreneurs by providing financial and management courses, vocational training and workshops linked with access to finance. Mann Deshi Business Schools are set up and run alongside Mann Deshi Bank branches.

Mann Deshi has already achieved significant impact:

• 11,000 clients have been reached
• More than 10,000 agri-businesses have been set up or improved because of the Mann Deshi Business School
• It has 26,175 active borrowers, approximately 50% of whom own small enterprises
• The Mann Deshi Business Schools have 21,158 rural women graduates
  It has 11 NGO offices, 6 bank branches, 5 business schools and 2 mobile business schools

For further information, visit www.manndeshifoundation.org