Women’s Conference organized by BAPS at the Swaminayan Temple

Brisbane, March 19 (MCCQ Newsdesk, by Amrita Deshpande.)

On 23rd of March the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha organized a women’s conference in celebration of the International Women’s Day. Community Women Leaders were invited to the function. Councillor Teresa Lane Div 2 LCC, Cindel Richardson of Queensland Police Service, and Alison Liddell, of Multicultural Australia gave inspiring speeches and motivated women to take up leading roles in their organizations.

All women speakers gave excellent presentations which were insightful and thought provoking. Topics chosen for the panel discussions brought out extremely inspiring stories shared by the panelists. Emotions were running high as the topics of relationships and taking care of each other were discussed. The entire conference was surrounded by the theme Symphony of the Soul: Appreciation, Togetherness, Empathy and Forgiveness.

As women we often keep striving for the best. Inoder to achieve this, we often start being very competitive and jealous of each other instead of appreciating each other’s strengths and uplifting each other to bring the best out of each other. Empathy thus becomes a key factor when it comes to bringing the best out of others. Letting go of the ego and accepting others viewpoint helps create a harmonious and peaceful as well as efficient work culture. As women this is a necessary trait to imbibe and teach children who are the future citizens of the country who will be taking meaningful decisions for all to live in harmony. Harmony is not achieved until a point of time when you have forgiven someone. Forgiveness is the path to liberation. It is also an answer to many conflicts that occur in our everyday lives. Compassion and forgiveness lead to acceptance, belonging, bringing about togetherness, facilitating appreciation for others and yourself. Such were the topics that were discussed at the conference which not only brought many women of different faith and background together in a conversation but also made an impact on their thinking process. The conference was very successful. Women who attended came from various different organizations from different suburbs, following different faiths, religion, belief systems, and status.

As the community leader representing multicultural women, I was honored and privileged to attend the conference as VIP guest, participate in the fun activities, and impart my insights on the topic of the conference.

Multicultural women get less opportunities to be on their own, speak in front of a room full audience with confidence, showcasing their intellectual abilities. This conference allowed many such women to step forward, speak up, stand up, and put her thoughts in front of everyone. It was a safe place to tread on. Many such conferences must be organized by community organizations for women to thrive, be confident and pave the path to success.

Every woman must remember the unique selling point of the conference, that being, “ Why strive to be ordinary when you are already extraordinary”. What I conclude from the conference is that one must never give up or ditter from challenges, but keep on building yourself and success will be yours.