When troubles prevail, that is the right time to bring positive change. So rise, because the time is right. This is a wonderful piece of advice Guru Chinmaya Swamy gives from the Gita. MEE was born in the tough times of the pandemic to bring about a positive change. A positive change in the lives of thousands who were part of various NGOs. These social groups had moved from the philanthropic model of collecting donations to making products and sustaining their causes and livelihoods. All was fine till COVID happened when they lost all their marketing platforms.MEE decided to support such groups with all its energies and networking skills. This is the story of one such very dedicated cause driven by a very committed leader
Who is this Minakshi Walke?
The ‘ never say die’ attribute of Mrs Meenakshi Walke led her to create a niche for herself as a highly empowered woman entrepreneur and trainer in India and other countries of the world.
Just like the amazing bamboo plant when cut will simply unfurl new leaves that create and send energy down to the root system to regrow, Meenakshi Walke after losing her second child overcame her loss by turning inwards to gain strength from her inherent creativity.
And today she is widely known as the “Bamboo lady of Maharashtra.”
Minakshi Walke.
Credits:- Women Shine
Minakshi Walke’s journey.
Her journey from being a homemaker to successfully establishing a home business speaks volumes about her girth.
Though hailing from a farming community, she pursued her artistic skills by first training and mastering the art of creating bamboo artefacts.
Then she started a small initiative in the slums of Chandrapur, mastering the art of creating bamboo artefacts and learning how to harvest, treat cut and slice before utilising it.
The strong yet flexible and lightweight quality of bamboo has encouraged her to produce a wide range of products, like baskets, trays, pots, jewellery, rakhis etc.
She used social media to gain wide visibility for her products and soon their demand increased multifold.
This motivated her to start a small initiative in the slums of Chandrapur.
How is it going currently?
She started training other women in the community thereby increasing the number of hands to help her to fulfil the demand for her products.
Recently, she did a month-long program for the tribals of Gadchiroli.
Minakshi Walke Training the tribals of Gadchiroli. Credits:- Youtube (Bambo Maha News)
The objective was to empower them to become financially independent and keep them away from illegal activities.
This year along with the Burud community and the Gadchiroli tribals, Minakshi has crafted 25,000 exquisite rakhis and aspires to sell them all.
A few of her rakhis have been sent to Sweden & Switzerland where they have been highly appreciated.
Example of Rakhis that she makes
Shortly, this Bamboo lady of Maharashtra is optimistic about having her workshop where a minimum of 50 women would be employed throughout the year.
With her die-hard passion for the art, her positive outlook, and the support lent to her by her husband, Mr Mukesh, she will surely realise her vision of empowering as many women as possible and thus empowering our society.
Mrs Meenakshi Walke has in the true sense celebrated the beauty and utility of the amazing bamboo plant.
MEE supports 25 such NGOs across the country to promote and sell their eco-friendly products. Through its “Sell in India campaign” MEE has reached out to more than 10,000 socially sensitive individuals and many schools, colleges and corporates too.
Though MEE strongly supports such livelihoods efforts the main objective of MEE is environment conservation and through its products, it wishes to educate its audiences about eco-friendly lifestyles.
MEE is a ‘ME’ with a double E where one ‘E’ is the environment and the other ‘E’ is everyone. To know more about the products and to purchase the bamboo rakhis contact Shreelata Menon at 9619552221
Featured Image Credits:- Women Shine.
