Join Us for 2nd Annual SoCal Women & Girls Retreat: ‘Making Our Voices Heard’

March 15, 2014

MPAC is partnering with the Islamic Center of Irvine and New Horizon Irvine for the 2nd Annual Women and Girls Retreat focused on the theme “Making Our Voices Heard," which will take place on Saturday, March 15, in Irvine, CA.

“After the great success of last year's retreat, we are excited to once again invite women and girls aged 13+ to join us for an inspiring day of self-reflection, empowerment and fun,” said Edina Lekovic, MPAC’s Director of Policy and Programming. “This year, we are focusing on defining our vision for ourselves and making our voices heard in our community and the public square.”

The daylong retreat will feature keynote speaker Laila Karamally, the executive director of Developments in Literacy USA, a nonprofit that strives to improve the state of education in Pakistan's underdeveloped, mainly rural areas.

Participants will then be divided into four age groups and will rotate through a series of interactive workshops where they will learn and engage in discussions about:

Defining Your Vision
Making Your Voice Heard
Supporting One Another to Move Forward
Staying Grounded through Spirituality

The workshop instructors are: Metra Azar-Salem, a marriage and family counselor and professor at Claremont Lincoln University; Dina Eletreby, Head of New Horizon Irvine; Soraya Deen, inspiration speaker and founder of Resolution Revolution, Inc.; Edina Lekovic, MPAC's Director of Policy and Programming, Amina Makhdoom, a high performance trainer and inspirational speaker; Tasneem Noor, a dream builder coach; Leyla Ozgur, a doctorate in near Eastern languages and cultures and Arabic literature; and Sheikha Muslema Purmul, who received a degree from Al-Azhar University.