Celebrating Women's Day with IWA

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 and the Johor Baru chapter of the International Women’s Association (IWA) planned to celebrate this special day with a lunch event held in a hotel.

The guest speakers with IWA JB committee members
at the International Women's Day celebration 2020

Besides enjoying lunch, the members and their guests will hear from four guest speakers – one of whom is me – on topics that would inspire, motivate and empower.

It was my pleasure and great privilege to participate with IWA in this year’s Women’s Day celebration as a guest speaker (again!) because this will give me an opportunity to meet my IWA friends again.

When the New Straits Times newspapers had a southern section called Johor Streets, I had frequent opportunities to publish my stories on IWA fund-raising events in cover and centerspread stories, complete with full-colour photographs.

All this ceased when the Johor Streets stopped its publication at end 2015.

I was delighted to meet Priya Preet Kaur
again at this event

My relationship with IWA had developed over the years and when I joined them for a Malay cultural event, I shared this story in The Iskandarian, the official newspapers of Iskandar Malaysia, in a page dedicated to My Johor Stories.

In August 2017, I had the privilege to present my book, My Johor Stories: True Tales, Real People, Rich Heritage to the IWA and their Book Club, and was deeply encouraged by the members’ enthusiastic response.

Established in May 1999, the IWA is a non-profit charity organization which organises fund-raising social events to contribute towards healthcare, education and other social needs in JB.

The IWA tagline, Connecting – Caring – Contributing, reflects how they recognise its role in the community.

The members of the JB chapter of IWA who have made Johor Baru their home with their husbands, based here for work, are from nations like Australia, Belgium, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, India, Korea, Japan, Netherlands, England, Scotland, the United States, Singapore and Malaysia.

Dr Indigo Triplett presenting her topic on,
Resilience: An Essential for Women

I fondly remember meeting with Priya Preet Kaur from India, who told me that before moving to Johor, she was doing online research for schools in Johor Baru for her children when she stumbled upon my blog, My Johor Stories.

It was heart-warming to know that my stories helped her connect with this place even before she arrived!

Priya’s experience as an expatriate woman who was encouraged by My Johor Stories to adopt JB as her home with her family, compelled me to consider it as the crux of my presentation topic.

As I pondered over the number of people whom I know had connected with Johor through My Johor Stories, very soon I had adequately fleshed out my talk.

Mr Adni Rusli sharing on his topic,
The Empowerment of Women through Clarity of Mind

With so much content, it was easy to compile relevant photographs and create a visually exciting presentation in, Building Bridges with My Johor Stories.

On the appointed day, I went to the Women’s Day celebration aware that some of the women whom I had previously met, may have left the country due to the changes in their husbands’ work contracts.

But I remained hopeful that I would meet some familiar faces.

I was also keen to hear from the other guest speakers, Dr Indigo Triplett, who would speak on the topic, Resilience: An Essential for Women, and Mr Adni Rusli, who would share about The Empowerment of Women through Clarity of Mind.

Ms Miriam Ottimofiore speaking on her topic,
Issues of Identity & Cross-Cultural Differences

I was the third speaker with final speaker, Ms Miriam Ottimofiore, who would join the event via video to speak on the topic, Issues of Identity & Cross-Cultural Differences.

When the first two speakers made their presentations, I joined the audience to listen to their interesting presentations.

Meanwhile lunch was set up in a buffet spread while the soup course was served to the tables in individual bowls.

Then it was time to have lunch and by the time I was invited up to share my presentation, the audience had started on their soup.

I had fun speaking on the subject close to my heart,
Building Bridges with My Johor Stories

As I warmed up to speaking on the subject close to my heart, I was delighted to observe as the audience quickly focussed and gave me their undivided attention.

I had passed my camera to an IWA member to help take some photo mementoes and later, when I reviewed the photographs, I saw that her random shots managed to capture the audience’s candid reactions to my presentation!

At the main table, I happened to be seated next to Dr Indigo, CEO of 4D Performance who has achieved great success as a leader, author and speaker.

She believes that Asia is primed to be next global economic power and had recently launched 4D Performance in Malaysia.

The audience responded candidly while giving me their undivided attention during my presentation

We had a brief chat over lunch and after the event, I was delighted to receive an email from her that read:

Happy International Women's Day
to IWA JB from My Johor Stories

“It was such a treat meeting you and I’m thoroughly impressed with the information that you shared, your ability to uncover and discover the many accomplishments and nuances of your family and Johor. Wow… people would pay to have that type of information for their family. Ancestral research is a big thing now in the US.

You seemed to have figured out how to uncover information, which is a gift. I certainly hope that your books are scripted into a documentary or movie.”

During our chit-chat, when Dr Indigo mentioned the part about “movie” it struck me as very interesting because last year, I had heard about a collaboration to create a script to stage a live musical theatre show based on the local content in My Johor Stories.

Let’s just wait and see… When the time was ripe, My Johor Stories may then be presented in diverse ways...

Meanwhile, Happy International Women’s Day IWA JB and thank you for the opportunity to share with you about how My Johor Stories have been building bridges and connecting people to Johor.

Note: My Johor Stories series of books are available from MPH bookstores nationwide and online via mphonline.