How to care, celebrate, connect and collaborate

The South Sydney Indian Association, which rallies for charities, shows the way

Women have always been the catalysts of change and innovation. When enterprising women come together (generally over cups of coffee), when ideas and concepts are discussed, what emerges are projects that are aimed to make a difference to the community.

The South Sydney Indian Association (SSIA) is the result of a few such interactions where 11 women put their heads and hearts together—“the seed idea was to give back to the community the love and support these women have received and in the process, bring together the vibrant Indian brothers and sisters living in the southern suburbs of Sydney”, says one of the committee members. They call themselves a “motley group of passionate women” who are dedicated and ready to go that extra mile to fulfil their goals.

SSIA is a registered, not-for-profit organisation with a vision to ‘Care, Celebrate, Connect & Collaborate’. The core committee includes the president, vice president, secretary and treasurer, with eight other members who work in the capacity of event coordinators, support coordinators and volunteers.

Since its inception in January 2017, SSIA has organised various events and through these events has raised significant funds and rallied considerable community support for key initiatives and charities. The association has not only organised formal fund-raising events but other community building and bonding activities as well. There is the ‘Aaja Nachle Club’, an avenue for people to beautiful meet weekly and ‘dance without a care’. The ‘Cook-Offs’, encourage the South Sydney chefs and bakers to show off their amazing talent and the ‘Connecting Hearts’, is a platform to bring together members of our community to meet their soulmates and build a bright future together. The association also hosted the Karwa Chauth Celebrations, an auspicious evening for friends and family to come together and celebrate.

The formal activities this year began with with the SSIA Holi Dhoom, which facilitated the celebration of Holi and at the same time raised funds to support of prognosis for Baby Ria. The SSIA Winter Carnival, provided the enterprising entrepreneurs a platform to promote their business and this event raised funds to support the International FoxG1 Foundation and the SSIA Diwali Dhoom, brought the community together in a festive mood with through a dinner night and all funds raised was donated to The White Ribbon Australia. The SSIA Diwali Dhoom was held on 13 October at Sapphire Function Centre in Auburn. The chief guest for the evening was Labour member for Strathfield Ms Jodi Mckay, dressed elegantly as always, in a saree.

The evening began with a Lakshmi pooja followed by the keynote address by the chief guest. The tiny tots in their festive wear took over the floor for a cute ramp walk. The cultural program included solo dance performances by Shweta Doke, Shesha Thakur and performances by the dancers from Bollywood Sensations. Stephanie Bernard brought in a change of mood with her Samba performances while DJ ASH lit up the dance floor.

The next planned event is the SSIA Twilight Carnival, a carnival to bring together the amazing mumprenuers to showcase their business in preparation for the festive Christmas shopping season. This year it will be held on 10 December in the St. Georges Area. For more details visit ssia.org.au

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