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Many companies choose to support Anawim as part of their corporate social responsibility as their chosen charity or by requesting talks in their workplace, like the one below. You can see more about how to follow their lead here. 

Tata Technologies 

Global engineering company Tata Technologies and its roughly 700 staff have supported Anawim – Birmingham’s Centre for Women in many ways, from donating money to providing a platform to share our important work.

HR Business partner at the UK-based firm, Dharminder, first came across Anawim by inviting us to speak on International Women’s Day. That led to Tata Technologies organising charity fundraising events for us too.

Dharminder said: “Our head of Diversity & Inclusion asked us to put some initiatives together to promote International Women’s Day. My idea was to link in with a local charity. I did some research and found Anawim and the charity resonated with me.

Dharminder Singh

Dharminder Singh

“Two nuns set up the charity in Birmingham’s red-light district and I actually grew up close to that area. I felt really passionate about getting involved.

“Emily from Anawim came in on International Women’s Day, and colleagues are still asking about the charity. The stories were relatable and could have been anyone’s mum or sister.

“We were told about a woman and her children fleeing domestic violence on Christmas Eve. Anawim worked with local organisations to ensure the family had accommodation, bedding and food. Staff even took down Christmas decorations in the women’s centre so the family could decorate their flat. You know, if that was my mum or my sister, that’s how I would I want them to be treated. Knowing Anawim is there is reassuring.”

Dharminder said that as he is a ‘foodie’, he followed the visit up by organising a company bake sale to raise money for Anawim. “People were really positive in terms of baking cakes – food is definitely the way to go to raise money.

“Baking cakes helped people to engage with the events. They talked about Anawim too with people who might not have come to see them.”

Since then, Anawim and Tata Technologies have continued to look at ways to work together. Importantly, the HR team is aware that it can refer employees to Anawim if they need support, and are also more able to spot signs of domestic violence after the talk.

“As a company, we recognise that we have more men than women,” added Dharminder. “One of the things we’ve done over the last few years at board level and in senior management is increase the number of women. Our Head of Diversity and Inclusion is female and she’s very passionate about improving inclusion and raising awareness around challenges that our female employees encounter.

“International Women’s Day was about how could we raise awareness and for men, how can we educate them around supporting women better in the workplace.”

This isn’t the first time that the company has supported women. It has female-focused projects including an ambassadorship programme, sponsoring first year female engineering students at the university local to its Leamington Spa headquarters. That aims to try and increase numbers of women coming into the industry. Tata Technologies also offers support with job interview skills, CV writing and access to learning and development tools.

“Our advice to other companies is to reach out and have conversations,” said Dharminder. “One of the things that really engaged me with Anawim is being able to get hold of someone to talk to – other charities might not be so easy.

“I went through the website, got the email address and got a response quickly and linked with Emily. It was really easy in terms of that process, to understand a bit more about Anawim and how we could support or help. If Anawim is on your doorstep then take advantage and reach out.”