FOR THE CHILDREN OF DHARAVI
HADAYA has teamed up with local restaurants Chai Pani and MG Road once again to continue their mission of providing educational opportunities to the bright and driven girls of one of the largest slums on earth - Dharavi, India.
On Sunday, May 7th from 6pm - 8pm, MG Road will host a 'Taste of India' Benefit, of which all ticket sales will help to continue funding the community grants program established by HADAYA, which pays for two of the girls to attend University for a year. Tickets are $25 and include one drink (cash bar also available), heavy appetizers, and entertainment.
Since the organization’s inception, HADAYA has raised thousands of dollars in donations and delivered soccer balls, jump ropes, kites and the like to groups of refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, southern Turkey, as well as India and Nepal.
In the summer of 2015, MacDonald travelled to Dharavi in Mumbai, India for a mission very close to her heart - and also to that of Chai Pani - to bring much needed educational supplies to the Dharavi Community Center, which provides opportunities in science, technology and art to almost 200 girls living in the slums. The trip was partially funded by a previous benefit dinner at MG Road/Chai Pani, and so the restaurants look forward to continuing their involvement this time around in keeping the support going.
A scene from Dharavi, from National Geographic
From Chai Pani, “We’re always looking for ways to give to charities, but in this case, it’s really nice, because Jennifer and Vanessa are community members we actually know. In fact, Jennifer was one of the first servers at Chai Pani almost eight years ago! We know that they are personally going and doing very worthwhile things with their own hands in our beloved homeland of India."
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The evenings festivities:
Chefs Meherwan Irani and James Grogan will prepare a bevy of Indian snacks
including some Chai Pani favorites like kale pakoras and okra fries, and of course chai, amongst other bites.
Other great aspects of the night include:
Aditi Sethi (of Shantavaani) and Allen Roda playing traditional Indian folk and devotional music
Presentation on HADAYA by Jennifer and Vanessa
Lively Bhangra dance with Lisa Zahiya and friends
Live Auction of a "private dinner event with music"
(this includes a private concert by multi instrumentalist Aaron Price,
a dinner by Buxton Hall Barbeuce chef Elliot Moss, dessert from French Broad Chocolates, and wine from METRO wines including on-site sommelier who will explain the wine pairings to guests)
And of course: great drinks and networking
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Jennifer MacDonald and Vanessa Bell co-founded HADAYA TOYS, a grass-roots organization based in Asheville, NC, as a way to bring joy to displaced refugee children worldwide. Their organization provides toys, books, art supplies, and educational opportunities to this very vulnerable population of children, in hopes that this “lost generation” will be able to have as many of the same opportunities as other children during this time of distress and turmoil.
MacDonald and Bell have personally raised thousands of dollars in donations to communities in need worldwide and then gone on to personally deliver their contributions to these communities to ensure they end up in the right hands. MacDonald (far left) and Bell (far right) look forward to delivering the grants to attend university for a year to the two very girls pictured above, Anu (green shirt middle left) and Depali (striped shirt, middle right).
Chef Meherwan Irani (far left), founder of Chai Pani, and James Grogan (center), chef de cuisine of Chai Pani, will be on hand to prepare the food for the evening. Chef Elliott Moss (far right) has generously donated his talents to be auctioned for a private dinner in support of Hadaya's mission.
