NRI Pulse

City News

Sewa Atlanta chapter raises $78000 at annual fundraiser

Deep prajwalan by chief guests T.R Reddy and Mrs Reddy. Also seen are Consul D V Singh, Pratap Singh- Sewa Atlanta president and Shyam Gupta- Sewa Atlanta media coordinator.

Atlanta, GA, December 2016: On Nov 12th 2016, the Atlanta chapter of SEWA USA held its annual fundraising gala banquet at Tadka Banquet hall , Alpharetta. The event was attended by about 300 guests. Mr and Mrs T R  Reddy, founders and owners of Powerline Inc. Augusta, graced the event as its chief guests.  Consul D.V Singh, along with many other dignitaries of Atlanta attended the event.

The celebrations started with welcome note by Vikas Arora, the Atlanta Chapter coordinator, followed by deep prajwalan by the guests. After an auspicious start to the proceedings, the chief guests shared a few pearls of wisdom about their personal motivations for supporting Sewa and the stellar service it performs.

Pratap Singh Chauhan, President of Sewa Atlanta Chapter, shared his intention of educating 10,000 children by 2020, a very admirable goal which was met with tremendous applause. The importance of imbibing Sewa bhavana was shared by Reddy, and it struck a chord with everyone in the audience. Consul D.V Singh shared with the listeners, his association with numerous events SEWA Atlanta has been conducting ever since he started working with the Indian Consulate inAtlanta.

Deepa Luthra and Sai Santosh  emceed the event with effervescent wit. After the chief guests shared their words of wisdom, the emcees introduced SEWA interns from SEWA Get Inspired, and SEWA Run events who won the President’s Award for exemplary contribution to society. They were honored with certificates presented to them by Mr and Mrs T R  Reddy.

Sewa Humanitarian of Year Award presented to Sarita & Ankur Rana of Knowledge Momentum.

After recognizing the interns’ excellent contribution towards SEWA’s activities, Vivek Srivastav was invited to give a presentation on his work for the Bhutanese Empowerment Program. He enthralled the audience with facts and figures on the impressive inroads SEWA has made in the Bhutanese community towards education, health, family services etc.

SEWA has always been committed to promote excellence in education amongst the Bhutanese community. Towards this goal, two Bhutanese students,Umesh Mongor and Padam Koirala were presented with scholarships for achieving excellent GPA’s in High school.

SEWA has recently increased its focus on Family Services for providing a support to victims of domestic abuse. Yogesh Thapliyal gave an engrossing presentation on the progress SEWA has made in the past year in this area. Another significant program run by SEWA is the Sponsor A Child program where SEWA, with its own network, and with the help of other co-operating institutions helps donors sponsor education, lodging, school and axillary expenses of under privileged children. Sarita Rana and  Mayuri Singh delivered an informative presentation on the success SEWA has had in this area in the past year. The conclusion of the presentation was chosen as the appropriate time to honor Mr Ankur Rana and Mrs Sarita Rana’s initiative, Knowledge Momentum Inc. Through their organisation, Mr and Mrs Rana have sponsored the education of 73 girls. Mr. and Mrs Ankur Rana were presented with “ Sewa Humanitarian of the Year Award” byAtlanta’s philanthropist Dhiru Shah.  Mr Anil Dhamani’s contribution towards sponsoring 100 children for 2017 was recognized and applauded greatly by the audience.

One of the recent SEWA initiatives has been working with grassroot level small and mid range farmers. Mr Milind Thakre gave an engaging presentation on the progress SEWA has made on that front. This was the last presentation of the evening. Dr Prasad Garimala, an Oncologist and avid supporter of Sewa, gave the vote of thanks and thanked the audience for their contributions towards SEWA’s efforts . He also thanked  TV Asia’s Anjali Chhabria for covering the event.

After Dr. Garimala’s wonderful vote of thanks, the audience was entertained by artistic Indian and Western dances by four different troupes. Dinner was served during the dance performances, and the audience enjoyed scrumptious food while enjoying the tremendous display put on by artists. The dances concluded by 10:00 pm and the floor was thrown open for everyone to enjoy.

The gala dinner was a massive success, far exceeding the expectations of the SEWA volunteers who had worked for many days before the event to ensure it’s success. SEWA succeeded in raising $78,000 with the fundraiser.

Related posts

Consulate Celebrates India’s 69th Independence Day

Veena

Ajit Kumar appointed India's Ambassador and permanent representative to the UN

Veena

NYC Mayor proclaims June 19 Sankara Nethralaya Day; Indra Nooyi keynotes event

Veena

Leave a Comment