GROUP PHOTO: Sitting, from right to left, Sunita Chaturvedi (Media Incharge), Freny Siganporia (Treasurer), Latha Padmanabhan (Gen. Sec), Jotshna Dey (President), Renu Malhotra (Vice President), Benedicta Jathan (Joint Gen. Sec), and Safia Abdul Majeed (Joint Treasurer). Standing, from right to left, Kanthi Ravichandran (Public Relation Officer), Komal Lalwani (Public Relation Officer), Sunita Lalwani (Head Public Relation Officer), Asha Shiju (Sports & Cultural Secretary), Padma Singh (Cultural Secretary), and Krati Nakra (Public Relation Officer).
By Anand Holla
For the new Managing Committee of the Indian Women’s Association (IWA), it was a befitting occasion to flag off their run of activities.
By celebrating both the International Women’s Day and the Indian festival of colours, Holi, at Crowne Plaza last Wednesday, the newly elected IWA committee for 2015-2016, ensured it was a fun-filled ladies’ day out.
Following a welcome note by the new IWA President Jotshna Dey and introduction of the newly formed Managing Committee and Advisory Committee, guest speaker Dr Rekha Pillai took to the stage.
Pillai, who is Director of Programs at Qatar National Research Fund, highlighted the roles women play and the importance of women in today’s day and age. Her speech was a call to women across the board to take up jobs in challenging roles.
Pillai spoke about “how we can help in our own ways to preserve resources for our future” in the face of increasing world population and decreasing resources. She emphasised on the need for girls to be encouraged to take up careers in the field of research.
Titled ‘Role of Women in Modern Times’, an article written by IWA member Nirmala Raghuraman was chosen as the winner among the several submitted by fellow members. Raghuraman said, “The new look that the woman now has is that she is multi-talented, multi-faceted, multi-linguistic and multi-coloured.”
Once the Women’s Day speeches were wrapped up, Holi celebrations took over the chirpy evening decked with music, dance, games and colours, and topped off with some delicious refreshments. IWA Patron Chhaya Arora, who also heads the new IWA Committee, was the Chief Guest of the evening.
Jotshna Dey told Community, “Today’s woman has mastered anything and everything which she can dream of, but she still has a long way to go when it comes to achieving an equal status in the minds of men. The fastest way to bring a change in society is to mobilise the women of the world.” The primary aim of this sole Indian women’s organisation in Qatar is “to bring Indian ladies and families together and organise periodical meetings of the members to exchange expertise in various cultural social fields.” Its mission is “to raise maximum funds through its activities and to help the non-profit organisations involved in child education and charitable organisations.”
One of the most popular annual programmes hosted by the IWA is the Interschool Quiz Competition, the 18th edition of which, last October, saw participation from around 700 students from 16 schools.
