Pink Sari melodies concert had  contestants  sing for breast cancer awareness

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By Manju Mittal

A group of like minded community members and media got together at The Auburn Town Hall on Saturday afternoon November 19, 2016 as the outstanding winners of the Pink Sari Project National Song Writing Competition were announced at the Pink Sari melodies concert.

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The award winning Pink Sari Project is a community initiative launched in 2014 aimed at raising breast screening rates amongst Indian and Sri Lanka communities. Women from these communities have one of the lowest screening rates in NSW. This campaign was led by the NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS) in partnership with the NSW Refugee Health Service, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Breast Screen NSW with funding from the Cancer institute NSW and was officially handed over in October this year to Pink Sari Incorporated, a committee established by a group of volunteer leaders from Indian and Sri Lankan backgrounds.

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Breast cancer is the most common cancer amongst women in Australia. It has affected many Indian, Sri Lankan women in our community as many heartrending stories we hear of women loosing their life to the disease. Not only just the woman the whole family around her is affected.

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Pink Sari 17Australia’s Got Talent Finalist Sukhjit Kaur was the Emcee, superb in handling the program as she engaged the audience well and her poetic creative interludes entertained the audience, a compere who has the uncanny ability of keeping the audience engaged. Sukhjit welcomed the guests and honourable judges and spoke about the cause, focusing on the importance of support provided to women during their cancer journey.   Program commenced with presentation of a video of cancer survivors followed by Pushpa Jagadish’s emotional song ”˜Naari’, Pushpa dedicated her song to her own sister, who suffered from breast cancer and lost her life and Pushpa’s song touched the heart of attendees.

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Pink Sari 29The top 3 winners chosen by the incredible line-up talented judges included musicians, radio broadcasters, journalists and esteemed members from the Indian and Sri Lankan communities. The winners were:  First Prize went to Russell Vincent, receiving $1,500 towards a return airfare to India or Sri Lanka for his song ”˜Women with our Hearts’.   Rekha Shashikanth won second prize, receiving $1,000 for her song ”˜Sumana’ and third Prize was a tie between Anu Sivaram and Pushpa Jagadish for their song ”˜Naari’ and Gary Luck for his song ”˜Pink Sari Women’- both receiving $500. The audience favourite on the day was the song ”˜Naari’ by Anu Sivaram and Pushpa Jagadish.

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Pink Sari 11The other singer/songwriter finalists who delivered outstanding performances at the concert were Sumi Krishnan team, Priyanka Pinto, Deepa Srinivasan, Daniel Vijaykumar, and Sheyana Wijesingha. The top 9 compositions were professionally recorded and pressed onto a CD and were distributed at the concert available for purchase through Pink Sari Incorporated.

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Pink Sari 24The Pink Sari Melodious concert celebrated the song writing competition winners and finalists and recognised the success of community efforts by the Pink Sari Project which has increased breast cancer screening rates in women from Indian and Sri Indian and Sri Lankan backgrounds by an incredible 17%.

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Pink Sari 40The concert was truly a musical extravaganza by Monsun Dance Group which showcased inspirational music and songs by outstanding songwriters and singers who came together to share their spectacular talents, to promote the message of Pink Sari and raise awareness about the importance of breast screening. Women are being drilled and educated about the importance of mammograms. Don’t let breast cancer take away the motivation to achieve your dreams or simply to live a full life.

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