{"id":8487,"date":"2025-05-25T18:05:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=8487"},"modified":"2025-05-25T18:05:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T18:05:18","slug":"international-food-festival-in-islamabad-raises-rs2-5m-for-charity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=8487","title":{"rendered":"International food festival in Islamabad raises Rs2.5m for charity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The Islamabad Foreign Women\u2019s Association (IFWA) hosted its annual international food festival on Sunday, drawing culinary offerings from at least 28 countries and raising more than Rs2.5 million ($8,929) to support education and health initiatives for underprivileged women and children in Pakistan.<\/p>\n<p>The event, held in collaboration with Serena Hotels, featured participation from 80 diplomatic missions. Now in its third consecutive year, the festival has become a signature fundraiser for IFWA, a non-political, non-profit organisation founded in 1995 by the spouses of ambassadors posted in Islamabad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is our major fundraising event of the year to support the charities that IFWA supports here [in Pakistan], which are mostly focused on benefiting vulnerable communities of Pakistani society, especially women and children,\u201d said IFWA President Dianne Hawkins, the wife of the Australian High Commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>According to Hawkins, the proceeds will be directed toward initiatives primarily in the education and health sectors. Aziz Bolani, CEO of Serena Hotels, said the event not only raised funds but also served as a platform for cultural diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p>Embassies showcased traditional dishes at their respective stalls, with Moroccan and Egyptian offerings drawing particularly large crowds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, we are serving Moroccan chicken, Moroccan salads, and one of the main traditional dishes of Morocco, that is typically served every Friday \u2014 couscous with vegetables,\u201d Moroccan Ambassador Mohamed Karmoune said. Homemade Moroccan bread, sweets, and tea were also available.<\/p>\n<p>Georg Steiner, the Swiss Ambassador to Pakistan, said he hoped the event would give locals a taste of Switzerland. \u201cWe brought along some Swiss food like R\u00f6sti [a potato dish], Z\u00fcrich-style veal, and also some excellent cakes,\u201d Steiner said, adding he had sampled many cuisines. \u201cI think Pakistani food is always wonderful, be it biryani or something else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The festival, blending cultural exchange and charitable giving, continues to grow as a unique annual fixture in Islamabad\u2019s diplomatic and philanthropic calendar.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Islamabad Foreign Women\u2019s Association (IFWA) hosted its annual international food festival on Sunday, drawing culinary offerings from at least 28 countries and raising more than Rs2.5 million ($8,929) to support education and health initiatives for underprivileged women and children in Pakistan. The event, held in collaboration with Serena Hotels, featured participation from 80 diplomatic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}