The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : In support of gender equality

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Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

In support of gender equality

Kalyan Ashok

Quite a surprise: Tennis player Venus Williams interacting with children of Indira Nagar government school in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: K. Murali Kumar

BANGALORE: The Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association, which is organising the Bangalore Open Championship, will donate $100,000 to the UNESCO and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Partnership for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and Leadership.

KSLTA honorary secretary C.S. Sunder Raju made a commitment to this effect at a function held at Hotel Leela Palace here on Tuesday. It was attended by tennis legend Vijay Amritraj; reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams who is the Ambassador for the UNESCO and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour venture; Larry Scott, chairman of the Tour and Saniye Gulser Corat, Director of Gender Equality of the Bureau of Strategic Planning, UNESCO.

“Venus, who is a great champion, has brought more focus and direction by volunteering to promote such a cause and it is indeed a privilege that our programme is being launched by Venus here. My interaction with her for the past few days has revealed that she is not only a great champion, but also a great human being,” Mr. Raju said. “I am really touched by KSLTA’s generous pledge. It would go a long way in creating an environment to produce women with leadership qualities in this part of India and I look forward to being in Banglaore again to support this venture”, Ms. Williams said.

“It was something which means a great to me. Gender equality is an issue I have always believed and strongly supported and the response from other players too has been very encouraging. Maybe we can all get together as a group and do lot more,” said Ms. Williams who has been joined by other Tour stars Tatiana Golovin of France and Zheng Jie of China.

The children of Indira Nagar Government School, which has been adopted by Rotary International 3190, had a special moment with Ms. Willliams presenting them designer T-shirts and posing with them for a photo shoot.

Mr. Amritraj, the show’s compere, said as he watched Ms. Williams, “she has been like that always ... trying to reach out. She is someone special and has the gift of gifting”.

Gender equality is fine, but does that percolate to U.S. presidential elections as well? Ms. Willaims broke into a huge smile and said: “Every other nation has women in power, why not the U.S.?”

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