Manavi's Annual Dinner.

The Annual Dinner brings together survivors, staff, volunteers and supporters for an evening of enjoyment and reflection. The aim of the Dinner is to bring the community together to reaffirm its commitment to ending violence against South Asian Women. The Dinner has not only helped cement Manavi's name in the community, but has also provided funds to allow it to continue its efforts. Like previous years' Dinners, this year's Dinner was a huge success with a large turn out.

The event was held on March 31st 2006 at the popular restaurant 'Akbar,' in Edison. The evening kicked off with the Director of Manavi, Maneesha Kelkar, welcoming the guests and giving a brief synopsis of the organization's activities. She then introduced the speaker of the evening, internationally renowned writer Bapsi Sidhwa. Her critically acclaimed novel, Cracking India, which explores the Partition of India from a child's perspective, was made into the movie Earth by noted Canadian director Deepa Mehta. Ms. Sidhwa discussed the process of adapting the book into a movie and regaled the audience with a slide show of events from the filming. Copies of Ms. Sidhwa's novels were being sold at the dinner and she agreed to a book signing.

After Ms. Sidhwa was done, two current residents of Ashiana, Manavi's transitional home, stepped up to the podium and shared their personal experiences with violence. They talked about their struggle to overcome the guilt, shame and emotional upheaval of domestic violence, and thanked the Manavi staff for helping them discover their inner strengths in Ashiana's safe, secure and ...