SEVA International Inc., Sri Lankan Australia Women’s Network (SLAWN), Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association NSW Inc. and Boronia Multicultural Services (BMS) came together on the 10 March 2024 at the Auburn Centre for Community to celebrate International Women’ s Day 2024.

It was a Sunday afternoon filled with stories of successful women in politics, business and health promotion and an afternoon to celebrate the achievements of women.  An audience of over 80 women and men had the opportunity to listen to and be inspired by great women entrepreneurs and women in business and politics who shared their stories of success.

Jayashree Arcot, Honorary Secretary, SEVA International opened the event by welcoming the audience and the speakers for the afternoon.  Sunila Kotwal was the Master of Ceremonies for the afternoon.

Sumati Advani, President of Seva International set the scene to talk about this year’s themes of Count Her In, Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress and Inspire Inclusion.  She highlighted some of the recent initiatives announced by the Federal Government to support women but we still have a lot of unfinished business in the areas of Gender Pay Gap, Gender Super Gap and Gender Caring Responsibilities Gap and most of all Gender Safety Gap, Bernadette Agyepong from Boronia Multicultural Services spoke about the organization and its mission and activities that provide culturally specific support services for people from a refugee background and migrants of non-English speaking background living in the cities of Cumberland and. Parramatta.

Sunila Kotwal, CEO of Immigrant Women’s Speakout Association highlighted Speakout’s services in the area of information, education, support and advocacy to women of non-English speaking backgrounds in Western Sydney and NSW. Speakout also supports migrant women experiencing domestic and family violence, who are homeless or are at risk of homelessness.

Nalika Padmasena, President SLAWN highlighted the various activities undertaken by SLAWN in 2023 and thanked the partner organisations for their collaboration.

Sally Sitou, Member for Reid, kicked off the event by narrating her story from the time her parents migrated to Australia and expressed her appreciation for living in a country of opportunities.  She compared the limited opportunities that were available to women in her grandmother’s time to the opportunities that were available to her growing up. She mentioned some of the initiatives by the Labor Government that have been brought about for women due to having women at the decision-making table. She made particular mention of the government-funded paid parental leave which will pay an extra 12 per cent superannuation on top of the parental leave payment, from July 2025.

Christine Deutsch from Sarina Russo Entrepreneurs/Workforce Australia and Sapna Lazarus Vice President SEVA facilitated an interactive activity with the participants aimed at encouraging them to reflect on their lives using Wheel of Life and SWOT analysis and to make the necessary changes. She shared her insights for starting one’s own business and gave resources and contact details for those who would like to start their own business or are already in business and encouraged them to seek assistance from her organisation.

Lisa Woodland, Director, Multicultural Health presented valuable information on the harmful effects of vaping and shisha, prevalence of its use and the myths and facts of shisha and vaping.

Rohini Solomon from Kingsgrove Sports enumerated her innovative solutions in driving the success of her business, the company’s contribution to Sri Lankan cricket teams. She shared challenges faced by her business particularly during Covid and her success in overcoming obstacles.

This year’s team included Sunila Kotwal, Nalika Padmasena, Bernadette Agyepong, Jayshree Arcot and Sapna Lazarus. Special mention is made of Sue Advani, President of SEVA International Inc. for leading the team this year.