The Friday Convent

  

The venue was colored in red and white. The air was filled with flavours of wine, scented candles, grilled chicken and mushroom. As I stepped inside, I was greeted by hugs instead of formal handshakes. The podium was all set for our honorable guest and our leading sistahs to deliver the message of the evening. As the night started growing, women came flooding in. Red was common in all of them. Some were dazzling in red sarees; some were flaunting their curves in long red cocktail dress. You must be questioning yourself, what this women’s crowd is all about? I should lower your curiosity by now. This was an assemblage for the Friday Convent membership launch party.

 

The Friday Convent is a non-profitable network of professional women, who provides a helping hand to develop the professional and personal leadership skills of women. This network works on the basis of three core verticals: Network, Support and Give. It was originated in the year 2010 as a small network and support group for women. Gradually, they witnessed the online space by 2011, which later on transformed into a registered non-profit organisation, focusing on women empowerment by 2013.

 

 

It was 8.35 p.m. by my watch. The crowd was summoned towards the platform. Everyone lend their ears to the speaker. The show started with an energetic introduction by Blossom Fernandez followed by showcasing the upcoming projects of TFC, Uru and The Badi Didi project. As the time passes, my curiosity levels started increasing. My heart got consoled when my inspiration, Sarita Hegde walked towards the stage. She was accompanied by our Guest speaker, Pritham Raja. The crowd clapped to cheer. Pritham Raja and his colleague Adarsh was the highlight of the evening. They are the man behind the organisation named Threads of Freedom (TOFU).

 

Being born and brought up outside India, Pritham was naive in Sex Trade in India. A personal incident made him educate himself about the sex or garment trading in India which lead him to set up TOFU. Our eyes gazed on the big white screen which described the insights, objectives or mission of TOFU. The work focuses not only on releasing the girls from Sex Trafficking but also counsels, train and employs them in garment factories. I believe, like me, many got inspired that evening. For few minutes, Pritham shared his thoughts and even generous enough to answer the crowd’s questions.

 

 

The show ended with sumptuous dinner and the most important part happened was networking. This event also proved a reunion place for lost friends and connecting with the new ones. I felt, knowing each other is the first step to work along towards a common objective and TFC is successful in doing that. This shows TFC is proceeding in the right direction and is geared up in becoming a social brand for women empowerment.