Hello dear ELSAs!

What an eventful month this one has been! Lockdown has lifted, but we are all more or less at home, given the fear of the spiking infections in our cities. The heat, the humidity, and then of course, the major event of the Solar eclipse.

But we in ELSA have been busy otherwise too. Webinars, donation drives, virtual interactions galore, we have not been sitting quiet.

Here’s sharing with you, what has been happening till now.

As we continue to evolve, from this month we are extending our reach from chapters to pan ELSA. From now on, some of our sessions which were earlier for a certain city will now be available for all ELSAs across India and even worldwide to join and connect with each other.

We are starting with doing these twice a month for now. So, stay tuned and keep a watch for our PAN ELSA events on our FB and Instagram social channels.

Here are the PAN ELSA events:

Our PAN ELSA sessions since our last update included ELSACONNECT sessions with Vinita Bali on May 30th, Rashmi Misra on June 6th and Rekha Menon on June 20th. We also had our first non-ELSA speaker, the Bangalore chapter Election Officer this year, Dr. Sunita Maheshwari on July 7th. The next PAN ELSA speakers we were delighted to host were all non-Bangalore ELSAs.



Some of the special PAN ELSA sessions were with Vandana Kohli on 18th July, with Madhavi Kuckreja on the 25th of July and Annette Philip on the 8th of August. And we are planning to host many exciting PAN ELSA talks in the coming months.

Look out for the links closer to the date on your local WhatsApp groups, LSR alumna chapters on Facebook and Instagram handles. Each PAN ELSA session requires registration, so sign up early to guarantee a place in the room. Do remember, if our meeting room is full, you can watch us live on YouTube. All ELSAs, friends and family are welcome to peruse our sessions here at their leisure.

https://bit.ly/ELSAblrYT

ELSA Bengal Cyclone Relief Drive

West Bengal and Odisha were devasted by the Amphan Cyclone, which hit in the month of May, 2020. Millions were left homeless, shelter less, with no means of even obtaining food and basic necessities.

As an effort as socially conscious citizens, ELSA EC partnered with Bengal Relief Collective (BRC) in a drive to raise funds for the relief and rehabilitation activities being done in some of the affected areas of West Bengal. The Bengal Relief Collective are a group of volunteers from around the globe formed with the intention of helping the Amphan Super Cyclone victims of West Bengal. They are coordinating the relief activities with their partners, Prameya Foundation, on ground and also orchestrating the supply of necessary materials to the remote blocks and villages in Bengal. Sandhya Devesan Nambiar, an ELSA (English Hons, 1998-2001), as part of the BRC, was coordinating with us. You can read more about this at:

https://www.facebook.com/Bengal-Relief-Collective-100510781697077/
https://www.westbengalrescue.in/?fbclid=IwAR0Pc1L0EXKJGJgVjXbMLIoipMkOr5cZDMugk4XrroNcbUkyMBSsu02KUlI
https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/05/26/cyclone-amphan-climate-adaptation/

We are happy to report that we were able to raise more than 1 lac rupees towards this. Thank you ELSAs!

Since the requirement is enormous and efforts ongoing, contributions are always welcome. For those of you who want to donate, you can do as at:
http://lsralumna.org/elsa-bengal-cyclone-relief-drive.php

ELSA EC in collaboration with Indraprastha Apollo hospital brought an online health talk on ‘HOW TO COMBAT COVID’ under the ELSA Talk series. Two key doctors from the Apollo Indraprastha Hospital – Dr. Rajesh Chawla and Dr. Havind Tandon, addressed concerns and shared medical information regarding the present health concern of COVID and other related issues.

Dr. Rajesh Chawla is a Senior Consultant in the Department of Respiratory, Critical Care and Sleep medicine at the Apollo Hospitals and he addressed Issues of Covid 19 and Respiratory problems. Dr. Havish Tandon is a Senior Consultant and Orthopedic Surgeon at the Apollo Hospitals and he spoke on Bone and Joint Issues during the Covid 19 Situation.

The 1 hour session was attended by over 50 ELSAs from all over the country and even from other countries, since the topics were so relevant and crucial in current times. The doctors answered their queries and also suggested broad general preventive measures to help all.

We are very grateful to the doctors for having taken out time from their busy schedules to interact with us. The session was greatly informative and helpful and was attended by a full house of over 100 ELSAs!

As a part of the ELSA Talks series, we also had Anjaly Banarji (Bhagyashree to her collegemates) doing a session on Adapting to Change. Anjali has worked many years in NGOs relating to Mental Health education and in the session, she shared with us some easy and practical steps to help us adapt better.

The Mumbai ELSAs got together for a drive to donate money for the menstrual hygiene of migrant women in collaboration with FICCI Flo. The donation drive supported UNICEF'S project -Jeevan Rath. The project got overwhelming support. In two weeks, a little over one lac rupees were collected. The project also supports women as entrepreneurs, as the eco friendly biodegradable sanitary pads that are distributed to women are the ones that are made by women's NGOs such as Myna Mahila.

ELSA Bangalore is pleased and proud to share that ELSAConnect is growing together from our last update. Our sessions are held every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, as they have been from early April.

ELSAConnect sessions have bonded us on a variety of topics, from the highbrow to the deeply emotional. Each session reveals to us the many talents and multifaceted nature of our communities.



We are honored and thrilled that so many ELSAs step forward to engage with ELSAConnect, whether as a speaker, a moderator, a host, our fabulous technical team or our content drivers. Included here, are the various posters from our sessions. They say each picture is worth a thousand words, and we hope that you are drawn in to engage with us, either live or on our YouTube platform.



They say each picture is worth a thousand words, and we hope that you are drawn in to engage with us, either live or on our YouTube platform.

We at ELSA are planning on reaching out through drives to raise donations for various issues and agendas. Participate, contribute.

We shall, of course, keep our webinars and other virtual interactions going, so keep a look out for those. Look out for our announcements on Facebook and Instagram, about ELSA Talks and ELSA #shareyourgift or ELSAConnect.

To keep us all connected and together, we are trying to figure out how we can make things happen, using the social media to connect. If you have ideas, send them to us. We would love to hear from you. Many heads are better than some!

ELSA also welcomes its new members! Here’s to growing from strength to strength and forming a network of powerful, positive women across the country!

ELSA also welcomes its new members! Here’s to growing from strength to strength and forming a network of powerful, positive women across the country!

On behalf of the ELSA family we warmly welcome our new members

We need to ensure that we ride out this phase as best as we can. Reach out, if you need anything. Reach out, if you know anyone who needs something. Take out some time to try and connect with those who are alone. Give yourself time and care and tons of love. Sending you tons of love and hugs from the EC team!