Our Purpose

Women the world over want the best for their family – they aspire to send their children to the best school, to wear nice clothes, and to have a fridge to keep their food fresh. Panchee strives to bridge the gap of inequality and bring more focus to the lives of disadvantaged women and help them achieve their dreams. Panchee aims to bring to the forefront the challenges that women with less privileged face and show how a small, consistent monthly contribution made by all of us can empower & impact a woman’s life & family significantly!

When women support each other, incredible things happen!

Panchee was formed by a group of passionate women with a mission to empower women in poverty. Guided with the belief  that every living being in this universe is connected to each other by an invisible force, Panchee was born!
The main purpose is to support women who lack access to resources and deserve the same opportunity to explore dreams and aspirations like the women of Panchee.

How does Panchee do this?

Panchee facilitates women groups in various parts of the city, where women get together to socialize and at the same time come together with the purpose of supporting and empowering women by helping them find sustainable solutions.

Panchee was founded in Bangalore, India and has several chapters around the city. Each chapter has ~25 to 30 women members. Members take turns to host the monthly meet in their houses, usually on a set day of the month that works for that individual chapter. The hostess plans the evening which includes a speaker for the get together. Some of the speakers have included: 

Pavithra Muddaya from Vimor which dedicates itself to reviving, innovating and documenting traditional handloom saree motifs and their weaves.
Brinda Adige Director of Global Concerns India and Equal Rights Activist
Add some more?

The magic of the evening is also about the women coming dressed up in different weaves and colors – the dress code being sarees! The evening ends with everyone sitting around a table of lovely home cooked meal. Simplicity is encouraged and warm conversations are about the impact created with the loans given.

The monthly collection from each chapter is sent to Panchee’s lending partners Vana Siri Rural Development Society an NGO based in Rannebennur, North Karnataka and Rangde, based out of Bangalore. These lending partners send Panchee the list of women looking for loans. From this list the Panchee team selects women based on various factors who will benefit from these loans.

The loans are mainly used for livelihood ie setting up micro enterprises like a small tea shop, a kirana store, a flour mill, buy a sewing machine for tailoring jobs, purchase a cow for milk sale, buy a goat to resell it for twice the price after feeding it well for 6 months etc. These women pay back the loans from the proceeds of the businesses.

Panchee is always on the lookout  for  like-minded, empowered & passionate women to join them. Our success story lies in the scale of impact we can create by enabling women in poverty to improve quality of life for their families.

Panchee is reaching out to women all over Bangalore  to make a difference to the lives of women one at a time. One small action can make a big difference to our sisters in need!

Trustees

Anuradha Sarin

With a career of over two decades in banking in the US and India, Anuradha pursued her passion for women empowerment through ventures in micro-lending. She was associated with Micrograam, a peer-to-peer lending platform that raises money for livelihood loans. She also consults with social enterprises on strategy and fund raising and her areas of interest include civic issues, education, wildlife conservation and the environment.

Jyoti Rao

Jyoti is a Chartered Accountant. A seasoned banker by profession, Jyoti resides in Australia. She is enthusiastic about women’s issues and enjoys the great outdoors.

Dr. Minati Misra Ambarish

Minati comes with over 20 years of experience in global financial markets, both as a portfolio manager and risk manager, with a focus on emerging markets, particularly currencies, derivatives and structured products. She has been a trusted advisor to several tech companies and currently serves as a COO for one such company in Bangalore. Minati is a recipient of several awards and honours including being recognized as one of “The Top 50 Women in Finance in the World” by Euromoney in 1997.

Pratibha Pant

Pratibha Pant is a veteran in the direct sales industry with over 23 years of experience as Trainer and then Regional Sales Head. She is passionate about conserving the environment and involves herself in community civic projects in Bangalore. In her spare time, Pratibha can be found tinkering in her kitchen where she conjures up exotic cuisines for her family.

Viraja Shankar

A physiotherapist and counsellor by profession, Viraja found her forte in service, quite early in her career. She has worked with Human Resources development to help youth become more employable. She managed Cancervive, a charitable trust in Managalore, that raised treatment of children with cancer.

Anita Singh

Anita has spent several years in the Advertising and Marketing industry with global exposure during stints in the UK and North America. Anita is personally and deeply committed to supporting education of children and livelihood of women, as well as to support the needs of the elderly and under privileged. She works closely with a few not-for-profit organizations to further this vision as a Trustee and Adviisor. In her current role as a Secretary , she is able to contribute to helping change lives of women and work on chartering programs to better their prospects to be ready to take on challenges that come their way in the future.