Circumnavigating The Planet To Enable Young Girls From India To Fly

Is there anything more liberating than flight? Does the sky have borders, boundaries, glass ceilings? A woman has recently done the unthinkable. For India. For the daughters of India. For you and me. The Earth we walk on, the skies we aspire to take to.

‘WE! Women Empower’ is an initiative by, of and for the girls and women of India, to attempt a first-of-its-kind circumnavigation around the Planet in a microlight, by a mother-daughter duo. Social Access Communications have collaborated with Ministry of Women and Child Development, Govt of India and Hindi entertainment channel, COLORS to launch this initiative.

The feat of exemplary courage, mental agility and an aero sport adventure, will attempt a World Record. It will fly across 21 countries, taking the message of women empowerment, while spear-heading a unique crowd-funding campaign for the `WE! Udaan Scholarship’ to champion, enable and empower underprivileged Indian girls across India who want to fly.

“Flight is one of the best symbols of liberation and I am happy to say that Indian women have demonstrated that there is no glass ceiling in the sky time and time again. As many as 11% of our pilots are women, while a country like the US has only 3%. In the Indian Air Force, our girls are already accepted in the cockpit. Endurance flying requires the presence of mind, quick decision making, mental strength and impeccable communication – all of which are qualities that would stand our daughters in good stead as they take on the challenges of life,” said Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child Development.

Capt Audrey Maben, a gifted microlight pilot and India’s first microlight flying instructor, who is also a mother of three,   has decided to undertake this brave mission of circumnavigating the Earth in a tiny plane to raise funds for the training of underprivileged girls in aviation. She will be accompanied by her 19-year-old daughter Amy, as the mission’s eyes and ears and social media correspondent. A first-ever mother-daughter team. The enviable journey is set to begin on February 18th next year and they will raise awareness for the scholarship fund and achieve the highest flying honour for Indian women. A first on many fronts for India.

Attempting an act way beyond her peers have ever dreamt, Capt. Audrey Maben took to the skies as a young NCC Cadet at the age of 15. Winning a national competition, the All India Best Girl Glider Pilot in 1993- 94, she decided to pursue gliding by enrolling into the IIT Kanpur Gliding Centre and thereafter obtained her first Glider Pilots License. She then went on to obtain a Microlight Pilots License and set a national flying record by participating in the Air Race India 2003. Besides being the only woman to fly as pilot-in-command during the race, she covered a distance of 2400 km in five days from Bangalore to Nagpur and back – SOLO in a microlight. A feat established by The Aeroclub of India and listed in the Limca Book of Records. In 2007, Audrey went on to become the country’s first woman flight instructor.

Poised to take on the unexpected, an excited Capt. Audrey Maben shared, “To me, flying has spelled nothing but freedom. It is pure joy to be airborne. Getting an opportunity to see the world and become one with it, is an elevated state of freedom. This mission will give wings to many more girls like me who dreamt of flying every day. All dreams can come true. I have been blessed to live my dream,” she added.

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Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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