INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
wedding of Britain's Prince Harry and American actress Meghan Markle has become a cause for celebration
The Myna Mahila Foundation, based out of the city's Govandi area, is one of the seven charities picked by the couple that will receive
donations in place of gifts for their royal wedding on May 19.The Myna Mahila Foundation was founded in 2015 by Suhani Jalota who was only
It employs women from urban slums in Mumbai to manufacture and sell affordable sanitary pads into the communities they come from
Its aim is to not only offer employment to women living in some of the most impoverished neighbourhoods of the megacity but also break
taboos around menstrual hygiene
Jalota says she says she picked the name because the Myna bird speaks a lot and the foremost goal of the organisation was to give these
For her work, she won the 2017 Queen's Young Leader Award.The charity was chosen by Ms Markle after she saw its work "first-hand" during a
visit to India last year, Kensington Palace has said
Ms Markle liked the idea of very small grassroots based organisation that focused on women within it as well as those that it was catering
to.Ms Markle had written about the charity in 'Time' magazine after her visit to Mumbai in March, 2017."During my time in the slum
communities outside of Mumbai, I shadowed women who are part of a microfinance system where they manufacture sanitary napkins and sell them
organisation, Myna Mahila Foundation, refers to a chatty bird ('Myna') and 'Mahila' meaning woman
The name echoes the undercurrent of this issue: we need to speak about it, to be 'chatty' about it," she said.Kensington Palace said Prince
Harry and Ms Markle do not have any formal relationships with the charities chosen."The couple have chosen charities which represent a range
of issues that they are passionate about, including sport for social change, women's empowerment, conservation, the environment,
homelessness, HIV and the armed forces
Many of these are small charities, and the couple are pleased to be able to amplify and shine a light on their work," the palace statement
