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June 2002 |
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WINDOWS ON CANADA |
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Sunday
May 12, 2002 was a very special day for 8 year old Souha Usman. On this
day, she her 11 year old sister Anousha and mum Shahneela were headed
towards George Brown House in downtown Toronto to attend a special
Mother’s Day event. Although Mother’s Day was celebrated in every
corner of Canada with pomp and zest,
this day was exceptional for Souha because she was taking part in
a Mother/daughter talent competition later in the day and the excitement
was palpable. The
Mother’s Day event organized by Raheel Raza and Bloom magazine was an
effort to bring together women from all walks of life and it did just
that. Ninety women from varying cultures, faiths and backgrounds
congregated at the Morning/Drawing Room of the beautifully restored 1876
Mansion owned by George Brown. Following a scrumptious East meets West
style brunch of fresh fruit salad, bread & bagels, cream cheese
& spreads, samosas, chicken tikka and chocolate cake, the ladies who
ranged from age of 8 to 80, gathered for fun and games. Program
commenced with a commemoration to ALL MOTHERS EVERYWHERE IN EVERY CORNER
OF THE WORLD. Mothers
in war and mothers in peace Mothers
in every strife ridden country of the world from Afghanistan to Zambia Especially
mothers in Palestine and Israel who see their children killed everyday Mothers
of the four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan Mother
Earth and Mothers like you and me This was followed by a Women for Peace project marked by everyone wearing a blue peace ribbon. The host explained “Today is also about peace. It’s important to mention here that peace is a process that begins within ourselves and reaches out. To me there’s no point in going out to lobby or protest in a peace rally when we hate our neighbors or the so called other. Peace and the struggle for peace must be a universal process just like we commemorate mothers universally and not individually.
"The
reason we don’t have peace is because we don’t reach out in love and
tolerance in our hearts and unless we first clean our hearts and souls,
and take time to ponder on the fact that when I want peace for myself,
my people or my country, I must wish the same peace for others
irrespective of who they are. As
women, mothers are nurturers – just imagine if a mother has four
children and they decide to become a Muslim, Jew, Christian or Hindu –
will she stop loving them? A mother is the only human in the world who
loves unconditionally. And this is what we have to do – strive for
peace and love unconditionally, across all man-made boundaries.” After
a one minute silence for peace, the fun began with a Mother/daughter
fashion show of contemporary Spring and Summer fashions from the East.
Make up for the models was done by Vasanti cosmetics who also
donated prizes for the raffle. A
special fund raising was done for women’s education and empowerment in
Afghanistan towards setting up workshops called Mitigating Violence
against girls and women based on Human Rights Education. These are being
organized by International Network for the Rights of Female Victims of
Violence – (INRFVVP) an internationally recognised organization. In
the audience was a singer/song writer/poet and voice teacher who has
performed in Carnegie Recital Hall.
Honey Novick directs the Creative vocalization studio as well as
the UNESCO-endorsed new songs for peace project. She sings in 7
languages including Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish and Yiddish. Honey got the
audience into interactive singing and 2 of the songs she performed are
from her current CD. Soon it was time for the talent competition. The judges were Libby Stephens, editor of the Religion Page at the Toronto Star; Marianne Bai-Wu editor and publisher of Bloom magazine and Caroline Jeba, anchor and producer of South Asian Newsweek at CFMT Television (now with CTV Canada). The judges had a hard time choosing a prize winner because they said all the contestants were wonderful.
However they gave the
following prizes: First
prize to Shahneela, Anousha and Souha Runner
up to Alka and Megha Single
prize to Aparita Bhandari Prize
for reducing us to tears went to Barbara and Yasmeen Special
mention for: Michele, Hilary, Madeline, Charlotte This
was followed by a talk on Aromatherapy by Edith Mariani who is a
Holistic practitioner and performs Reflexology, Reiki and Aromatherapy
massage. Edith explained the importance of education in this field and
some of the contra indications. She also donated a prize.
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