Nisha Pramod reports on Manchester Malayalee Association (MMA)’s International Women’s Day celebrations at St. Joseph’s Church Longsight in Manchester.
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Manchester Malayalee Association (MMA) celebrated International Women’s Day at St. Joseph’s Church Longsight. The celebrations commenced with an inaugural ceremony of lamp lighting by MMA president Mr.Polsan Thottappilly, Chief Guest Dr.Jose Abraham N.D ,Vice President Mrs Bency Saju, Joint Secretary Nisha Pramod, former president Mrs. Megala Shaji, executive members Bindu Kurian, Reena Wilson and Nisha Sharat Nair.
Mr.Polsan highlighted the history of women achievers with special focus on Marie Currie and Indira Gandhi. He also shared with the group his own experiences on the influences he had from the life of Marie Currie and Indira Gandhi and how those experiences had been an inspiration in shaping his social and political career.
He promised to encourage empowerment of women in the MMA.
A minute of silence was also observed to pay respect to Kerala assembly speaker Mr.Karthekeyan who passed away in Bangalore after losing his fight to liver cancer.
The welcome speech was delivered by vice president Mrs.Bency Saju.
The celebration started off with a session on stress management by Dr.Jose. He enlightened the group on history of stress, various stress triggers, signs and symptoms of stress, complications of stress and so on. Highlight of his session was the mention of some of the stress management techniques which were available around us and have been ignored due to the misconception of classing the use of such facilities as a luxury option rather than acknowledging those options as sensible ones.
He also said that regular use of relaxation techniques, aromatherapy, massage therapy, hydrotherapy, and stretching and relaxation exercises can be very useful and are money less spent compared to the amount of money that would be spent at doctors for managing illness that are caused by extreme stress in our life’s. His session was thought provoking and relevant to the busy schedule of all women in MMA.
The next session was by Dr.Agimol Pradeep who is an active campaigner with a wealth of experience in the field of health campaigning.
Her inspirational speech included sharing her experiences on how she had to fight with situations to be able to remain committed to her social work in spite of the hurdles that came her way was incredible. Her quotes by Marie Currie and Princess Diana were motivating. She also spoke on the step by step approach to conducting any health campaign and the need to contact the relevant organisations to avail the resources to support the campaign.
A memento was also presented to the guest speakers by the vice president and the joint secretary on the occasion.
After the two awareness session, women of MMA were treated to a three course meal of mouth-watering Indian delicacy prepared by Jumon Vadakumchery.
After the morning session the after session began with a group session chaired by Bency Saju and Nisha Pramod on fundraising activities of MMA. There were many suggestions from the group on food stalls, jewellery sales, clothing sales and so on. Various sales opportunities during dance classes, events etc were identified and support was expressed by members to promote such fundraising activities.
Discussion also included charity activities and suggestions were welcomed from the group to suggest their favourite charities which then will be presented to the panel to be finalised to which charity we wanted to support according to the majority opinions.
The last phase of the day concluded with raffle and fun games which were very entertaining with some great performances from the ladies.
A vote of thanks was given by the days anchor and MMA’s joint secretory Mrs.Nisha Pramod who thanked everyone for the great turnout and also all the organisers for making the event a great success. Some lucky ladies went away with their winning prizes from the raffle but everyone went away with a great day of celebration of womanhood and an inspiration to being more socially active in a platform provided by MMA.