The first Indian Women Empowerment Forum’s Conference in AZ was held at IACRF Hall, 2809, W Maryland Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85017 on Sunday, September 18th, 2016 from 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM, empowering Indian Women. This event was organized by Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) in collaboration with Indo – American Foundation of Arizona (IACRF).
Kate Gallego, Councilwoman and Vice Mayor of Phoenix, Subhash Thathi and Jagdish Sagar of IACRF, Shyam Byra and Manisha Kand of HSS, Dr. Sujata Gunnala and Lalitha Byra inaugurated the conference by lighting the lamp. A welcome Bharatnatyam dance by Sweta Bhagavatula was gracefully performed for the song Vatapi. A very inspiring, motivating speech was given by Kate Gallego, Subhash Thathi, Jagdish Sagar and Shyam Byra at the conference.
The event had an overwhelming response with more than 360 women registering for the conference. More than 290 women attended and participated in one of a kind Indian women conference ever organized in Arizona.
The goal of Indian Women Empowerment Forum (IWEF) is to help and support the rapidly increasing Asian Indian women population in AZ. Indian Women Empowerment Forum will promote awareness of issues relevant to women and our community; provide guidance to needy women thereby empowering them to handle the challenges faced effectively & efficiently with the help of other women.
Two, very powerful key note speeches were delivered by Dr. Sowmya Panchanathan, Pediatrician on “Raising children with the best of Indian and American Values, and Mrs. Renu Navale, Director – Intel spoke on the three “Powers” that are critical to the process for empowering oneself and others and can be used by all women, regardless of type of profession or endeavour.
At the conference, IWEF recognized and felicitated three renowned Indian Women of Arizona for their exemplary contribution and service to the community:Kalashri Asha Gopal ji has won a number of prestigious awards and has been a tireless ambassador for Indian classical dances. Her school, Arathi School of Dance, has entered the Guinness Book of World Records for have the most number of arangetram in the USA. There are no words which can convey our awe and respect for Saranjit Saini ji for her tireless sewa to Nishkam Seva Gurudwara Sahib in North Phoenix. Dr. Sujata Gunnala,voted Phoenix magazine Top Doctor, has donated land to the Maha Ganapathi Temple of Arizona and volunteers her time and services to the temple.
The IWEF’s first women conference was well rounded with information packed forums and discussions, entertainment, and fun games. The informational side to the event consisted of two panel discussions and break out discussions. The first panel discussion led by Dr. Padma Aking and Mrs. Anita Rangaswami addressed issues related to mental health and stress for women. More precisely, does one explore medication for symptoms of psychiatric illnesses or should we use more holistic approaches?The second panel event was a health forum discussion panel. This panel was led by Dr. Vidya Raman who addressed health concerns in middle-aged Indian women like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and life style choices and associated risk factors, Dr. Radha Ramamrutham who spoke on dementia and Dr. Sandhya Raavi stressed on children’s mental health and a very delicate topic – sex education for children.
There were 12 parallel tracks of group discussions in the break out session. They were
- 1) Bring Out The Best Of You By Bhakti Gosalia,
- 2) Holistic Awareness By Shampa Chatterjee & Anila Adusumilli,
- 3) Cultural Values By HSS Manisha Kand,
- 4) Educate & Unleash Your Potential By Rashmi Menon & Meha Trivedi,
- 5) Enhance Your Strength To Promote Yourself By Sapna Patel,
- 6) Learn & Rise To Top & Excel By Shyamala Chalakudi,
- 7) Breast Cancer Awareness & Women’s Health By Dr.Rashmi Vaidya & Shobana Bhatt,
- 8)Learn The World Of Business By Harpinder Saini & Manju Walia,
- 9) Financial Wisdom By Julie Lalwani,
- 10) Evolve, Adapt & Embrace Change By Deepa Iyer,
- 11) Legal Laws & Docs By Monica Sud Devraj & Geetha Nimmagadda and last but not least
- 12) Career Advice By Rupa Chenthil.
There were three dance performances and all were folk dances from India: Odia Regional Dance was performed by. Parul Agarwal, Smrutirekha Ray, Shatabdi Routray, Sonali Chatterjee for the song “Paada repaada Chandaa , Paadenupura bandha”. Gidha, a popular Punjabi folk dance was performed by Harmeet Kaur, Manmeet Kaur, Jai Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Manmeet Kaur, Sharan Kaur, Sarb Kaur, Renu Singh, Sweety Dult, Simran Kaur. The last song performed was a Lezim folk dance form, from Maharashtra, India where dancers carry a small musical instrument with jingling cymbals called the Lezim, The song was “Deva Shree Ganesha” This was performed by SarithaMuriki, SapnaMaheshwara, Suvarna Fadnavis, Namrata Tilekar, Arpita Shiggavi, Uma Raghavendra, Mrunal Koranne and Ramya Parthasarathi. An ode “ SunoSuno Meri Awaaz” to all empowered women was sung melodiously by Mouly Bhatt.
At 8:00 PM, a delicious dinner was served. The dinner spread was from Uttappam to Mysore bondas to double kamitha, all cooked fresh by the HSS volunteer men in the kitchen, right there at IACRF Hall.
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) USA is a voluntary, non-profit, social and cultural organization, conducts structured programs of regular athletic and academic activities to develop strong character and leadership skills in its members (known as swayam sevaks for men and sevikas for women), emphasizing values such as self-discipline, self-confidence and a spirit of selfless service (seva) for humanity.
Indo-American Foundation of Arizona is a Non Profit Organization in Phoenix, serving the Community through Community Center & EktaMandir Hindu-Jain Temple.
