As I sit-down write the current state of the organization update, I am incredibly proud of what NRI Vasavi Association (NRIVA) have been able to accomplish in the past 12 months since my last update through Vasavi Vani. First of all, let me pray for the well-being of so many of our families and public in general that have been affected in various ways owing to the pandemic. I pray to our Vasavi Ammavaru to bless all of our families immensely so that they continue to remain safe and healthy and to give them the strength to keep pushing on and rebound back strongly.
The continuing Covid-19 pandemic had the potential to derail many of our Mission 20ONE plans. Even though we delayed our global convention to 2022 due to this health emergency, we pressed along and accomplished a lot more. With the astounding strength, visionary leadership and determination of the members from our organization, we continued to evolve and find ways to thrive in our mission to Educate, Empower and Elevate our families. Many significant milestones were achieved in the last year. You will see detailed updates in the following pages of this edition on many of these achievements I have outlined below.
Lastly, dear and near to many hearts, our Covid response team’s selfless voluntary work which I have covered in detail below.
As a non-profit organization based in the USA, NRIVA, stood in solidarity with families across India who were battling the devastating second Covid-19 wave. Our homeland was being ravaged by this pandemic tearing apart communities and livelihoods. Availability of medical resources, food, medicines and ability to effectively find support were severely impacted.
NRIVA jumped into immediate action by creating a COVID Response Team back in March 2020 under my leadership to help the families impacted by this pandemic. As the President of NRIVA, I am so remarkably proud and deeply grateful on how our organization responded to this swift and significant devastation from the second wave. We responded with speed, resources, ideas and ability to execute. In the face of this health emergency, our team of volunteers without flinching, spent sleepless days and nights to find every possible means to support and save as many lives as possible.
I extend our sincere gratitude to all of the donors and volunteers without whose financial and resourceful support we would not have been able to proceed with many of these life-saving actions in response to the Covid pandemic. I would like to note that our Covid support in India reached both Vasavites and non-Vasavites which is another testament to our work. I have outlined some of key highlights from our response below:
I would like to take a moment to express my personal appreciation and gratitude to the hundreds of volunteers here in US and India along with the AAS beneficiaries that were part of the NRIVA COVID response team. Without their collective work, accomplishing such feat would not be possible.
As a non-profit Cultural, Social, and humanitarian global organization, NRIVA’s goals are to help the society and unprivileged members of the community and spread the message of Vasavi Matha: DHARMAM-SEELAM-AHIMSA. We remain committed to the NRIVA's simple motto, "Connecting to Serve".
Programs like Adopt-A-Student (AAS), Adopt-A-Village (AAV), Adopt-A-Parent (AAP), Seva, Legal, Spiritual, Cultural, Matrimonial, and Humanitarian activities demonstrate the scope and depth of our approach to connecting and to serve.
NRIVA also started a new endowment program through pledges from donors of up to $1.7 million dollars with the aim of having self-sustaining resources towards funding underprivileged student's education. In the year 2020, NRIVA also spent more than INR 2 Crores on its programs which includes need-based sponsorships for students’ education and adopting several parents. NRIVA continues to serve more than 500,000 meals each year through its humanitarian efforts and 100's of its members through its legal and immigration advisory support. NRIVA has conducted 100's of webinars to its members in the areas of Investments, Education, Finance, Health, Legal, Women Empowerment, Become-a-Tutor initiative, Business Interest, and continued engagement through social media and other channels. I am also proud to report that beginning 2020 our organization became eligible to recognize our volunteers through Presidential Voluntary Service Awards.
There are several behind the scene committees and resources that help us with what we do. I would be remiss if I do not recognize and applaud their hard work. My sincere thanks to all the committee members for their hard work and dedication in supporting our organization.
Let's all unite and follow the COVID guidelines, social distancing, sanitizing, and avoid unnecessary travel so we can SUCCEED in our collective fight against this virus.
NRIVA is indebted to all the donors and our strong volunteers across the world. Please encourage your Vasavite family members and friends to join our organization by becoming life members.
I look forward to seeing each of you at our upcoming Chicago Global Convention in July, 2022. Chalo Chicago!
Stay strong, healthy, and safe.
Jai Vasavi Matha!