Every year Women’s Web – a leading digital media tech company that serves as a valuable platform allowing women digital creators to tell their story, hosts the ‘Orange Flower Awards’. I have been associated with them since February 2019, and this was my first article that I published with them, where I reviewed the Oscar winning short film; ‘Period- End of a Sentence’. It was also the time that I started this blog.

A few months into writing, I heard about the ‘ Orange Flower Awards’ instituted by the Women’s Web. The awards and nominations said that this was the time when the power of women’s voices was recognised by way of articles on various digital platforms including Facebook and Instagram. Indeed a much-awaited annual award and recognition for digital creators in India.

Back in 2020, I decided to submit a piece from this blog, about the National Museum of Indian Cinema, in the category of ‘New Blogger’. And I was delighted to win that and I proudly display the badge on this website!

This year I decided to submit my pieces in two categories.

1. Orange Flower Award for writing on ‘Women at Work’- https://www.womensweb.in/2022/10/the-increasing-role-of-women-farmers-who-work-with-the-soil-oct22wk3sr/
2. Orange Flower Award for Social Impact (writing on social issues the Impact women): https://sojournwithsan.com/2022/12/05/vistas-of-vidarbha-part-3-nagpur-and-beyond-weavers-of-mominpura-sangeeta-venkatesh/

I am delighted to share that the first article was adjudged winner – an article that focussed on Soil & Gender. I spoke about a case study, which was an experiment that initially set out to achieve the goals of SDG 15 (reversing land degradation), also achieved an important goal of SDG 5 (to achieve gender equality and empower women).  It has set a good example and model for the effective replication of sustainable development goals. Totally humbled and elated. A big thank you to the stellar panel of judges and Women’s Web and my readers. I hope to carry on using my voice to highlight what I think are important for this world – in my small way.

As I read somewhere, “Awards do not only acknowledge success; they recognise many other qualities: ability, struggle, effort and, above all, excellence.’. I can vouch for this, especially the struggle and the effort.

Note: SDGs or Sustainable Development Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked objectives delineated by the United Nations that are designed to serve as a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet now and into the future”.

It would be remiss on my part, if I didn’t acknowledge my subscribers, who have been a silent force in encouraging me to pen my thoughts and reading what I put out. So a big ‘Thank You’. I hope you will interact with me even more in the coming days.