HWCRS’ International Womens’ Day celebrations ‘Unique2023’ received an overwhelming response
International Womens’ Day was celebrated in Surrey BC on March 17th, 2023. It was organized by Happyness Wellness Community Resources Society (HWCRS) with local sponsors the Dhot Group, Huneybay Accessories and in partnership with not-for-profit community associations ATI Vancouver and Manasvini Hindi Cultural Society. The event was titled UniqueYou 2023, and it promoted the IWD 2023 theme of ‘Embrace Equity’. It was a family event bringing together community members from various cultures. Tarana Kaur from HWCRS was the lead event planner. The event began with a traditional land acknowledgement by First Nations members.
The programming of the event reiterated that every woman is unique and has the power in her to make a change. It was an expression of women’s freedom and recognition of their contributions. Says Tarana Kaur, of HWCRS, who conceptualized the UniqueYou2023, “Everyone is born unique and you are unique with your own unique quality. My view is that if everyone gets equal chance, to express to be what they are recognized for their uniqueness, there will be a healthy community. This UniqueYou concept is celebrating everyone from various walks of life and age groups. There is no age bar. So we had four generations coming together and celebrating their uniqueness. My organization has been working for seniors very closely, especially with people with mental health techniques. I try to bring them back to life.”
Seven women were recognized for their selfless contributions with a community spirit reward. Neelam Batra-Verma, author of 1971: A War Story was given the community award for social activism for helping immigrant women who were victims of fraud marriages. She constantly writes on social issues and wrote extensively on this one as Editor of The Asian Outlook Magazine.
Kamla Bajracharya, another awardee, established a small non-profit society named Jhigu Palaa after the massive 2015 earthquake in Nepal. Says she, “Jhigu Palaa focuses on supporting income-generating projects in Nepal. We organize many fund-raising events in Canada and help support families and women’s collectives in Nepal.”
Speaking at the event, Jinny sims, MLA, Surrey-Panorama, said that though it was her father’s decision to send her away to university but when it came to sending her to a different city, away from home, her father got the jitters. However, it was her mother who eventually put her foot down and ensured that she could fly as high as she wanted to.
The theme of the evening ‘Unique2023’ was representative at every performance, which kept the audience regaled throughout the evening. Performers ranged in age from 3 years old little girls to women of maybe 80 years.
The evening kicked off with a beautiful Indian classical dance performance by little girls of a Sudnya Dance Academy aged 3 years to 5 years, followed by a group dance ensemble of seniors, by teenagers on the beats of the Oscar-winning Naatu Naatu song and a young comedian who sent the audiences in peels of laughter with his vibrant jokes.
However, the highlight of the event was a ramp walk. Women of all ages were invited and given free training by Meenal Drockz, the ravishing Miss India Seattle 2016. The showstopper was Prateek Kalra a proud member of the local LGBTQ community. Once again age, body type, sex or colour was no bar. Says Tarana, “ The only prerequisite was to bring your individuality and confidence when you walk the ramp.”
Many felt that it was a dream come true as they always wanted to do the ramp walk one day but never thought they ever could. Event co-planners Asmita Lawrence and Deepa Sharma together with their co-emcees Joseph Lopez and Parmeet Kamra kept the audience engaged by hosting in the English, Punjabi, and Hindi sections of the program. The 360 video booth and photo booth organized by HWCRS Society was a big hit with attendees.
Manasvini Society sponsored the children’s craft activity stall made in-kind contributions towards door prizes and invited local businesswomen and volunteer artists from their network to set up stalls and participate in the event thus providing another dimension to this exciting event as well as promoting small businesses run by women. When asked about their motivation for supporting this event, Shikha Porwal, Director of Manasvini mentioned that “Tarana Kaur has taken an initiative to create this spectacular event and we supported her good work.”
The event was sold out with about 200 people participating in the audience. There were door prizes as well as raffle prizes, the collection of which was to go for the welfare of seniors in Surrey BC. Tarana Kaur announced that the proceeds from these will go towards supporting seniors in Surrey BC by the Happyness Wellness Community Resources Center.
