Introduction

Lead. Grow. Change.

Lead. Grow. Change.

September 2019

LEAD. GROW. CHANGE.

20th September 2019

Ambassador Hotel, Khan Market, New Delhi

“Lead. Grow. Change.” marked Rising Flame’s second anniversary. We celebrated this milestone by reflecting on our journey and bringing together people from the community and topics we had been engaging with.

The event took place on the 20th of September 2019 at the Ambassador Hotel’s Dome Hall. All our speakers and panelists were women and youth with disabilities. People from various spaces like corporates, feminists, women’s rights activists, disabilities rights advocates, friends and allies were all present at the event. We were especially delighted to see a lot of student attendees from the Equal Opportunities Cells of DU and JNU.

nidhi goyal greeting kamla bhasin. both smiling and holding hands

We began the event with a warm welcome and a quick recap of our journey so far. Former chairperson, NCPCR, Stuti Kacker and Jyotika Kalra, Member, NHRC, addressed the crowd and spoke of gaps in data, missing voices, the struggles and the empowerment of women with disabilities.

The event focussed on two broad issues at the centre of our work: Voices and Consent. We had talks and panels that helped both deepen the engagement as well as expand how we understand these words. We had six fiery talks by our I Can Lead 2019 Fellows who shared their stories of navigating inaccessibility, ableism, consent and voices.

Panel left to right- sign language interpreter, Nidhi Goyal, Amba Salelkar, Meenu Bhambani and Smitha Sadasivan. Meenu is speaking, everyone else is looking at her and listening

The panels on Voices and Consent highlighted issues we are still finding space to articulate within mainstream movements and events; issues of smothering of voices, care, consent and daily living. The significance of these talks was that the voices, opinions and assertions came from the community itself.

We also played our movie Ending The Silence which was well received.

 

 

This event was a beautiful coming together of movements as and it would not have been possible without the efforts of our incredible team, our speakers, our guests and our friends at PlanetAbled.

group photograph of rising flame team, I can lead fellows and mentors and some guests at the lead grow change event in delhi. rising flame logo on the wall behind them

Watch the full videos of all the panels and talks here.

Read about LEAD. GROW. CHANGE. in Newzhook, The Quint and News18.