Women Awakening: VC Student Will Speak About
Helping Impoverished Women
Gain Economic Self-sufficiency in India

Ventura, California (March 5, 2007) – Local Ventura resident and Ventura College re-entry student Angela Kirwin will speak about her experiences helping impoverished rural women gain economic self-sufficiency through micro-loan programs in India at Guthrie Hall, Ventura College at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 21.

Her presentation is called "Women Awakening" after the title of a short documentary of the same name that will shown at the event. The documentary tells the stories of uneducated women of the poorest castes in Bihar, India who awakened to their ability to create a better future for their families with the help of village micro-loan programs and each other's support.

Her event is one of several being held by the college during the month of March to promote women who make a difference in honor of Women’s History Month. Kirwin spent time working in rural villages of outcaste Dhalit (formerly known as “Untouchable” caste) women in the northern state of Bihar, India, in December 2006. She did this with her husband and children through her involvement with Kirwin International Relief Foundation, a local humanitarian nonprofit she founded with her husband.

The presentation will about helping impoverished women become self-sufficient through micro-loans, women’s roles in India, how working with people of other cultures doing international relief work can increase one's understanding of one's own culture. 

The event will feature the short documentary "Women Awakening", a slide show of from relief work helping families in India and elsewhere, items for sale made by a HIV-positive women’s cooperative in northern Thailand and travel and volunteer information. Free and open to the public.

Kirwin and her husband did relief work in northern state of India called Bihar and in Chiang Mai, Thailand in December 2006 through their non-profit foundation called Kirwin International Relief Foundation (or KIRF for short).

In Bihar, India, they provided micro-loan funding for impoverished lowest caste women with Nari Jangran Manch and educational supplies for lowest caste children through three village educational centers run by KIRF Bodhgaya Indian Charitable Trust, an independent non-profit.

In Thailand they helped children orphaned by AIDS through a local Thai humanitarian organization called Support The Children Foundation. The relief supplies purchased in Thailand were funded, in part, by money raised at Ventura College by the Anthropology and Psychology Clubs.

Since the Kirwins’ first relief work in the field during the tsunami disaster in Thailand they have fundraised for other relief projects and have worked with local humanitarians, educators and doctors in Thailand, Cambodia, India, Mississippi USA (for Hurricane Katrina relief) and Tanzania.

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