PANJIM, JAN 13
January-end will see launching of a website www. womenaloud.com which will allow women from various parts of the country to shoot films pertaining to issues dear to them and upload the same on the Internet for international audience.
Thirty women from across the country have been trained for this purpose under an initiative termed WAVE – Women Aloud: Videoblogging for Empowerment – conceptualised by Sapana Sahani and Angana Jhaveri who have set up an office in Saligao, Bardez, for the purpose.          
Between November 28 and December 8, 2009, more than 35 women from all over India were trained in filmmaking by short filmmakers who had descended on Goa for the International Film Festival of India.
Some of the personalities, associated with films in way or the other, who trained these young women were Venita Coelho, Faiza Khan, Kavita Joshi, Vishaka Datta, Jasper D’Souza, Meena Belgi, Freeman Murray and Ruchika Muchhala.
While most of the States had one woman representative each at the training programme, Goa had the distinction of having six of these for the mere fact that the WAVE project office is set up here.
Sulochana Pednekar (Siolim),Venisha Fernandes (Sanguem), Sangamitra Mainkar (Bicholim), Preeti Padgaonkar (Porvorim), Clara Rodrigues (Saligao), Kajal Kerkar (Ponda) are the six fortunate eves from the State who have been trained to make films of two to five minutes highlighting issues dear to women in Goa. 
An excited Sulochana, who has been trained, can’t wait to make her first film. “I am keen about portraying health issues related to women in Goa. In our rural areas a girl is not even aware about her menstruation. Secondly they are shy to talk about it,” she says.
“I would also be interested in highlighting issues like breast cancer and cervical cancer that also need awareness in rural parts. We are being provided free cameras to shoot the films,” Sulochana adds.
The WAVE project is unique in the sense it is a first-time attempt to give an opportunity to low-income women to have a direct voice on the Internet, creating a global communication platform to discuss issues facing the fairer sex in India. 
The project is also aimed at creating young women leaders who will serve as ambassadors of their communities, which, so far were unknown to the outside world. The video stories, thus created, would be from their perspective and therefore serve as a documentation of real struggles and celebrations.