On August 17, 2019, CAVIWO hosted the second edition of Girls Talk at Grace Presbyterian Church in Orleans, Ottawa. Under the theme 'The Irresistible Woman,' founder Adah Mbah of MOHCAM and Mercy Achu of the Agreement Family Altar led a larger-than-ever crowd through conversations on confidence, business, home, and workplace.
On Saturday, August 17, 2019, Canada Virtuous Women (CAVIWO) hosted the second edition of Girls Talk at Grace Presbyterian Church in Orleans, Ottawa. Building on the momentum of the inaugural gathering, the 2019 edition drew a markedly larger crowd, filling the room with women ready to listen, share, and carry the conversations home. Girls Talk had quickly become one of CAVIWO's most anticipated gatherings, and the second edition confirmed that the first had not been a one-time event but the beginning of a movement.
The theme of the 2019 edition was The Irresistible Woman. The word irresistible, in this room, was not used the way the world often uses it. It was not about appearance or performance. It was about the quiet, consistent strength that makes a woman's presence felt in every space she enters, whether that space is her business, her home, or her workplace. The theme asked a question that many of the women in the room had been carrying without naming: what does it take to show up fully, and to be taken seriously, in every part of your life?
To answer that question, CAVIWO invited two speakers whose lives and work spoke directly to the theme. Adah Mbah, the founder of MOHCAM, and Mercy Achu, the founder of the Agreement Family Altar, brought to the room the kind of credibility that only comes from lived experience. Each had built a vision from conviction, and each understood, in her own way, what it means for a woman to carry her purpose into every room she enters.
The conversations moved deliberately across the three arenas the theme named: business, home, and workplace. The speakers did not separate a woman's professional life from her personal one. They spoke of her as a whole person, whose confidence in one space feeds her confidence in the next. A woman who knows her worth at home walks differently into a negotiation. A woman who leads with integrity in her business carries that same integrity into her family. The room recognized itself in that framing, because most of the women present were holding all three spaces at once.
Adah Mbah, through her work with MOHCAM, spoke to the courage it takes for a woman to claim her space and her voice. Her message resonated with women who had been taught, in countless quiet ways, to make themselves smaller. Mercy Achu, through the Agreement Family Altar, spoke to the foundation that makes a woman unshakable: the agreements she keeps with herself, with her family, and with her faith. Together, the two speakers gave the room a picture of the irresistible woman as someone whose strength is rooted, not reactive; chosen, not performed.
The response from the audience made clear that the speakers were the right fit for the theme. By the time the conversation opened to the room, the energy had shifted from attentive listening to active participation, and by the close of the afternoon the recurring question was no longer about the day's theme but about the next edition. The women were already asking when Girls Talk would gather again, a sign that the conversation had met a real need and that the gathering had earned its place on CAVIWO's calendar.
That appetite is, in a real sense, the measure of Girls Talk's success. The event is not designed to impress. It is designed to equip women to return to their businesses, their homes, and their workplaces a little more rooted than they arrived. When the room empties with women already planning for the next gathering, the work has been done. The 2019 edition turned an annual event into an expectation, and the expectation has carried Girls Talk forward ever since.
Girls Talk is one of the ways CAVIWO empowers women in our community to be better citizens. By creating a space where women can speak honestly about the questions that shape their lives, where leaders from within the community model what rooted confidence looks like, and where every woman in the room is invited to carry the conversation into her own sphere, CAVIWO strengthens not only the women who attend but the families, workplaces, and neighborhoods they return to. The second edition of Girls Talk, held on August 17, 2019, stands as a reminder that empowerment is built one honest conversation at a time, and that a community grows stronger every time its women are given a room in which to be irresistible.
Written by
CAVIWO Leadership Team
Contributor to the CAVIWO community sharing stories of hope, resilience, and advocacy.
