Saturday 12th May, I attended ‘The New Horizon Ball’ presented by Shiva Foundation. It took place at Hilton, London, Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. The ball was held to raise awareness about the fight against sex trafficking. It’s such a huge issue in many parts of the world, including India, but one which sees little publicity.
Guests were welcomed in the stunning reception area where there was a performance of classical Indian music by a group from Milapfest. Guests were later invited into function room upstairs. The opening address was given by Rishi Sachdev, Managing Director of Shiva Hotels. Following this, there was mix of Indian food and a wonderful music performance by Escalla. Later into the night, there was a unique ‘silent auction’ which involved guests placing bids on auction items via iPads. There was an array of auction items which included signed items from sports and entertainment personalities.
There was also a ‘traditional’ style auction which was conducted by Jonny Gould.
Anita Rani from the BBC gave the introduction of Sunitha Krishnan who was the main speaker of the evening.
Krishnan gave a powerful talk on how she works with various organisations to tackle the issue of sex trafficking which is so prominent. Read about her on TED here.
The event finished with an energetic performance by the Jersey Boys.
It was a fantastic event raising over £200,000 for the charities iPartner India & Hilton Foundation.