Holiday Cheer, Fashionistas Make a Statement for Pratham

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By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: Its annual fashion shows have become as much of a draw as the good cheer and fundraising focus of the luncheon itself. This year was no different as the models strutted down the runway to the sound of pulsating music and showed off the elegant designs of Fady Armanious, the Creative Director for Tootsie’s, one of Houston’s well-known boutique of high couture. The crowd of mostly well-dressed and elegant women, with a sprinkling of men, sat entranced through the lineup of whimsical gowns and dresses and broke out in loud applause as Armanious took his bows.

The fashions and the fashionables are very much in mind at the annual Pratham Holiday Luncheon and Fashion Show held every year in the coziness of the Junior League of Houston just inside the Loop, and a small group of cosmetics and beauty products vendors is always tucked in towards the back of the main hall. This past Friday, December 2, the crowd spilled out to the inner courtyard for some aperitifs but was chased inside to the ballroom as the overcast skies broke into afternoon sprinkles.

“It’s encouraging to see more men participating this year,” said Pratham Houston President Ash Shah to titters of disagreement from the overwhelmingly female capacity crowd. But he broke the ice and gave a brief rundown on the work that Pratham does and its lowest administrative costs, according to Charity Navigator, a rating website which gave it four stars. Shah described Pratham’s outreach and programs, and in particular the education, vocational a training and entrepreneurial incubation effort for Indian women which was the emphasis of the luncheon’s fundraising drive. Pratham has collaborated with local Indian conglomerate Godrej as a partner to scale up these programs in the coming years.

Luncheon emcee Sharron Melton, former anchor at KTRK TV, kept the program moving along to the short video “Nancy’s Footsteps” that retraced the journey of a woman in India from poverty to education and empowerment by being able to read to an entire group of kids. Honorary Chair Shital Patel – supported by co-chairs Annu Naik and Dr. Vanitha Pothuri – introduced the keynote speaker Dr. Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the Director of the Rice 360 Institute for Global Health, Malcom Gillis University Professor at Rice University and a member of the Department of Bioengineering. Her research has been instrumental in improving early detection of cancers and other diseases, especially in low-resource areas.

With the aid of some slides, Richards-Kortum illustrated the power of education to change the world for women and children in the developing world, especially Africa which has been her focus. “The leading cause of death for babies is pre-term birth,” she said, with India having a very large number and Mali in Africa the highest rate of pre-term babies, almost 1 out of 5. To increase the odds to match US rates would require an estimated 75 years for India and 150 years in Africa. In the US the survival rates improved in the 1960s with advancements in neonatal care. “But technologies fail in developing countries,” lamented Richards-Kortum, “due to heat and dust and lack of simple things like syringes for pumps that lie unused. Though dedicated physicians work hard, they need tools that are affordable and rugged.”

She went onto describe how her institute teaches motivated students to develop affordable technologies and turn them into design challenges and they take their solutions back to physicians for trial runs. She gave the example of a C-Pak device, first used in the US in 1961, which helps babies breathe. The students came up with a design that was rugged and improved their survivability rates in Africa from 25% to 65%. The device costs $600 versus the $8,000 price tag for those used in the US.

“The experience changes the students,” declared Richards-Kortum as she described the story of Elizabeth Stowe who went to Malawi in the summer of 2016 and taught a local nurse Chrissy how to use the C-Pak device. “Soon Chrissy had won respect among her patients as ‘the C-Pak nurse’,” she said, adding, “Today’s students are so inspired to change global life issues and health.”

Last year’s Pratham President Dr. Marie Goradia brought the first part of the event to an end, just before lunch was served, with a plea for supporting the women education, training and vocational school and entrepreneurial programs that have helped 4,000 of them get jobs and allowed 800 beauty salons open up across India. She explained the gist of the short video which was shown but had poor sound quality, which showed the story of a young girl Radha who was married off at the age of 15 and was used by all of her husband’s brothers. She escaped by jumping out of a second story window and fled, leaving behind her children. Pratham helped her to get an education and training and she eventually began her own beauty salon and is happily married.  Goradia said her goal was to raise $30,000 during the luncheon to help fund this program and set down the challenge for all to donate.