BY SHIKHA DAS SHANKAR
Decatur, GA, November 3, 2026: A handful of moms gave themselves a task: host a Diwali celebration for children, the kind of cultural activity they had been organizing at their kids’ schools for years. Only this time, there would be no hallways or school bells to limit its scope. What happened next surprised even these moms. Some 750 people, children of every age among them, poured in. Vendors who had hesitated to sign up with a group so new it barely had a name were now being turned away for lack of space. Seven founding members stood back, elated, as the first Decatur Diwali open to all turned into something far bigger than they’d planned.
One look inside the Ebster Recreation Center in Decatur on October 25, and you could see the afternoon belonged to the children. Little ones bent over tables shaping diyas out of Play-Doh, and the older kids took charge of the carrom board, coaxing everyone who wandered over to try their hand. Up on the stage, a dance troupe was letting loose to high-energy Punjabi beats. College dance teams from Emory and Agnes Scott, some of whom usually charge to perform, took the stage for free, simply to support the community. The performances ended with an interactive dance lesson, and in minutes, the floor turned into a sea of raised hands and shuffling feet. A row of vendors offering food, from fusion baked treats with an Indian mithai flair to desi favorites like dosas, pani puri, tandoori chicken, and even filter coffee, lined up outside the center.
By the end, organizers counted 750 people through the doors. Admission was free, a deliberate choice so more families could be part of the event. If nobody told you, it would be hard to believe an event of this scale was the very first for SACHA (South Asian Cultural Heritage Association), a newly formed, mom-run nonprofit.
Seven Moms, One Mission
The afternoon was planned to give kids a hands-on celebration where the idea wasn’t just to learn about their culture but to feel they belonged to it, too. That was the thought from the start for Soumya Dunworth, SACHA’s president and a research scientist with a PhD in cell biology. The group wanted a space “for our children to get to know their culture, meet other kids and other families who celebrate the same, you know, events and holidays, and see that you know they do belong,” she says.
Soumya is quick to share the credit. “While I have the president title, this really is a group effort. All of us are contributing equally and equally committed,” she says. Each of the seven moms on SACHA’s board brought her own strengths to the planning and the day itself: Soumya as president, secretary Abha Shah, treasurer Hetal Rathod, fundraising lead Mansi Das, community outreach lead Haseena Samtani, and advisory committee members Priti Bandi and Sujal Bhargave.
Four of them have been doing this together for years. In 2022, a group of parents in the City Schools of Decatur started a Diwali celebration on school grounds, funded by the PTOs.
“So Priti actually took the lead for the first Diwali celebration in 2022, and we all chipped in and volunteered, and that’s how we got to know each other,” Soumya says. About 100 people came that first year.
The next year, the celebration moved to dusk so the kids could light diyas, and turnout climbed to around 250, still limited to district families. By 2025, those families were asking for more. “We began hearing from families that they really wanted something that was more community wide,” Soumya says.
To address the need parents across the district had expressed, SACHA was incorporated as a nonprofit this year. This year’s Decatur Diwali was sponsored by five Decatur school PTAs and PTOs and 10 local businesses.
More Than a Mela
SACHA also wanted the afternoon to do more than celebrate. Two nonprofits set up tables: Raksha, the Atlanta organization that supports South Asian survivors of domestic violence, and AAVEd (Asian American Voices for Education), founded by Asian American moms in 2021 to bring Asian American history into Georgia classrooms. They were joined by April Biagioni, who spoke about the lack of South Asian representation in clinical trials. “All three of them are bringing up topics that in the past people would be hesitant to talk about, and sort of sensitive topics. But it’s really things that we need to bring up,” Soumya says.
The same thinking shaped who else became part of the event. Rather than lean only on established names, the board sought out newcomers. “We wanted to lift sort of newer voices in this community,” she says. Food came from Bun & Bombay, Prana Kitchens, Little Jars Bakeshop, Fig and Cardamom, and Raani Coffee. Inside, award-winning cookbook author Nandita Godbole displayed her books and pottery at her Curry Cravings stall, while shoppers browsed jewelry from Minou Bazaar and a variety of products from Nakhré by Nuqsh, Aira by Nisarga, Utsav, Almirah Stories, Humble Origins, and QalaVision. Brave + Kind Bookshop hosted the book nook, where children’s authors Shelly Anand, Shetal Shah, and Raakhee Mirchandani read to kids. Raakhee, a friend of board member Haseena Samtani, came down from Hoboken, N.J., and also emceed the performances.
Youth at the Center
If the little ones came to play, the older kids came to show they could lead. Some of the teens asked for their own tables, teaching Indian games like carrom to anyone who wanted to try. Many were there before and after the event, helping set up and clean up. For Shetal, a former world history teacher and author of Shakti Girls, that was the best part of the day. “I’m so excited to see them performing, volunteering. I’m able to call on them to help me out. To see them taking leadership really excites me,” she says. Her philosophy is simple: “When you give kids the opportunity to lead and solve a problem, they will take you up on it.”
Hetal’s son ran the diya station for four years straight. “That was his thing,” she says. This year, he “relinquished rights,” ready to try something new. She says the moms asked their own kids what would make them want to come. The kids may not share the same interests, Soumya says, but “they do have this heritage in common, and that brings them together.”
Why Decatur?
Why Decatur, even as South Asian families have been settling in the northern suburbs? Because, Hetal says, nothing like it existed. “Inside the perimeter, there’s not a lot of events like this, and I think we really actually wanted something that was like more in town versus things that are always happening in Gwinnett and Cobb,” says Hetal. (The perimeter is the area inside I-285, the highway loop around Atlanta.)
For years, the SACHA moms did what many in-town families do, loading the kids into the car for a long drive every Diwali and Holi. Shetal, who has lived in Decatur since 2009, felt the same pull. “For years, I’ve been wondering how we can celebrate our identity,” she says. Decatur gave the group its start and its event’s name, but Soumya says SACHA isn’t limited to one city. Every event, she says, will stay inside the perimeter, close to the families who’ve been driving far.
Events like Decatur Diwali show what’s evolving in the area. The crowd alone spoke to a need—families with kids want a place to come together and celebrate as one. “There’s a lot of interest right now in building this community in town, I think people see that there’s a gap here,” Soumya says.
Turnout was only part of the story. Families contributed through an online fundraiser and a silent auction, stocked with items from vendors and local businesses. “To us that spoke volumes that there is a true interest within our community to build something like this,” Soumya says. It’s a sign that families are ready to invest in their kids’ connection to their roots and in a platform like SACHA built to nurture it.
SACHA wants that community to be open to everyone. The group isn’t tied to one religion or one heritage. “You don’t have to be a certain ethnicity to join,” Soumya says. Part of that comes from the moms themselves. “We’re moms of a different generation,” she says, ones who honor the traditions they grew up with but are building something “more inclusive, and one that does not push aside things that are difficult to talk about.”
Diwali and Beyond
For Soumya, the SACHA mission hits home. She grew up in Iowa, in an Indian community of maybe 15 families. “So, our Diwali celebrations were again like 15 families getting together in the basement of a church,” she says. “We looked different, and we went to a school where we were different.” Her mother organized the kids’ plays and dances and went on to start the town’s first youth committee so her children would feel they belonged. Now Soumya is following in her mother’s footsteps, alongside six other moms, building a place in Decatur where their own kids can celebrate Diwali, Holi, and Eid close to home.
SACHA is already planning a Holi celebration in March, somewhere in town, and helping local schools mark Eid. A youth committee is in the works. There’s no membership yet, just a call for volunteers and a mailing list on sacha-atl.org. Standing at the back of the room that afternoon, watching the packed crowd take in the stage, Soumya felt goosebumps. “I didn’t know that we could do this,” she says.
