India
about
With Buzz Women in India we create a space for women to learn and grow together, since 2012. We do this with our mobile schools that drive into villages to provide training. We work on ‘Self-Shakti’, which means inner-strength, and on how to apply this in daily life. Through local Beehives, women groups, a permanent learning system is established in every village.
Self
Shakti
The Self Shakti is two half a day session for all women who are members of SHGs in a village, whom we reach with our mobile classrooms.
Covers the basics of enterprise, family budgeting, assets and liabilities, financial goal setting, loan management and building relationships.
Spoorthi
Fellowship
The Inspiration Fellowship is a six month training for Anchor Women—the Volunteer leader selected by the Self Shakti training group who collectivise as Buzz Beehives in their village.
Covers leadership skills, confidence building, communication, community building, problem-solving and taking ownership.
Buzz
Vyapaar
The Buzz Vyapaar training for both existing women entrepreneurs and women who want to start generating income.
Covers ideation of a business model, financial access, incubation of enterprises, and provision of skills and mentorship.
Buzz
Green
The Buzz Green Program on three levels: climate change awareness, close to home climate action and eco-preneurship.
Covers awareness, sustainability and management of natural resources, climate smart technology and living-practices, agricultural sustainability, and food security.
flagship programs
We currently have programs rolled out in the following places:
Tumkur, Kolar, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapur, Ramanagara, Bangalore Rural, Hassan, Chamrajnagara, Mysore, Davangere, and Mandya.
meet
the team
A word from our Chief Changemaker in India
Uthara Narayanan
What did you do before Buzz?
Working in an NGO.
Why did you start working at Buzz?
To explore the answer to the question "how do people come out of poverty?"
What do you do on a daily basis during your work?
Build relationships with outside stakeholders, keep up the teams motivation and give strategic direction to functions in head office.
What do you like most about working at Buzz?
The positive changes that women experience in themselves, their families and communities. My field visits are my favourite times since I get to interact with the women. They have so much to teach.
What is your dream with Buzz?
See the communities become full of independent thinkers who believe in their own power.
Venkatesh G S
Senior Manager, Operations
Jyothi M A
Manager,
IT & MIS
Sharada K
Manager,
Admin & Finance
Our team in India currently consist of 165 members. This includes head office staff, trainers, training assistants and anchor women facilitators. These people who commit to changing the lives of women in their country are an inevitable part of our impact.
Uthara Narayanan
Chief changemaker
The positive changes that women experience in themselves, their families and communities. My field visits are my favourite times since I get to interact with the women. They have so much to teach.
Yashoda.HM
Change Maker—Head of Programs
I have a passion for women's empowerment and to help diverse stakeholders work together to create sustainable impact. Buzz Women provides me with ample opportunity and scope to contribute. The support system in the organisation helping me to go with my passion.
advisors
Buzz Women India is actively supported by the following people. We are proud to call them Buzz advisors and ambassadors:
Gayatri Sriram
Advisor
Business coaching with expertise in strategy, communication & organisation. Focus on SME and start ups. Building resilience in founders and organisations. Leadership, management capacity building, communication strategy.
Prof. Sourav Mukherji
Advisor
Professor Sourav Mukherji teaches post-graduate courses at IIM Bangalore on Organization Design and Inclusive Business Models. His research focus is on inclusive business models – businesses that address the needs of the poor in a financially sustainable manner. Sourav is an avid follower of sports, enjoys running long distances and explores means of transferring lessons learned from sports to management.
Gayatri Sriram
Advisor
Business coaching with expertise in strategy, communication & organisation. Focus on SME and start ups. Building resilience in founders and organisations. Leadership, management capacity building, communication strategy.
Shweta Taneja
Advisor
Shweta Taneja is a writer, author, scriptwriter and communication specialist with more than thirteen years of experience in digital and print communication. She’s published four books and more than two hundred articles and can be found lurking at @shwetawrites
Thejesh GN
Advisor
Thejesh GN (ತೇಜೇಶ್ ಜಿ.ಎನ್) “Thej” is an independent technologist, developer, blogger, data enthusiast and traveler from Bangalore, India. He is the cofounder of DataMeet. Loves exploring data and programming.
Suresh K Krishna
Chairman Board & Co-Founder
Mr. Suresh Krishna is the co-founder of Buzz Women and CEO of Yunus Social Business Fund Bengaluru and co-founder and Partner of Yunus Social Business India Initiatives. Prior to this, he was at the helm of affairs at Grameen Koota. He was instrumental in developing Grameen Koota into a large, socially responsible MFI having its outreach in 5 states of India. Het has co-founded the Microfinance industry associations. He has played a very active role in developing the microfinance sector in India. He has also co-founded Grameen Affordable Shelters P.Ltd. And hee is Managing Trustee of Navya Disha Trust.
Padmaja
Trustee
Over 36 years of proven experience across the entire spectrum of banking, with leadership roles at India’s largest Bank (State Bank of India). Extensive cross sector experience of working with SMEs, Mid Corporates and large corporates in the credit area with experience across industry sectors. Selected for the inaugural Women on Corporate Boards mentoring programme by Spencer Stuart and Arun Duggal Chairman, Shriram Capital, intended to improve gender balance on corporate boards.
partners
Buzz Women supports thousands of women and their families around the world—but we don’t carry out our mission alone. These partners make it possible for us to do what we do every day.
Present Partners
Partners who have supported us
"After the first session of the training, I learnt about book-keeping. And soon I realised that my family was spending around 4,000 rupees on unnecessary things. Saving or investing this money properly would be a smarter alternative. I soon began to take loans from banks instead of relying on private/local money-lenders. Educating my children is important to me, and I had to take loans for the same. So, I keep an eye out for the interest rates and check where the interests are low. I often have people ask me where they should borrow money as well. I also started looking at schemes that allowed me to save on the interest. We are not leveraging our gold for money anymore. I am grateful to Buzz Women for their training."
