Januray 2025, Vol. 8, No. 1

Dear supporters of Sevalaya USA,

Thank you for your support! We have exciting news to share!  During 2024, we supported the education of more than 700 students. In addition, thanks to a generous donation from a supporter, students studying in Mahakavi Bharathiyar Higher Secondary School received coaching sessions in volleyball, basketball, athletics, football, and handball and participated in various competitions. 

Senior Home in the Kasuva Campus

• The Give Foundation sponsored three projects in the Kasuva campus:  

  • Mission No Child Homeless that supports 34 children.

  • Gift Shelter to a destitute child supporting 47 children in the home for orphaned children in the Kasuva campus.

  • Mission Elderly Lives Matter which supports 120 homeless seniors at various locations (Kasuva Old Age Home, Dharmapuri Old Age Home, Thanjavur Old Age Home and Zamin Endathur Old Age Home). 

    
    

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A generous grant from EKAM USA sponsors two vocational training courses at the community college run by our partner Sevalaya. There are 35 students enrolled in the House Electrician course and 35 students enrolled in the A/C Repair course. Both courses are six months long and coursework includes both theory and practical work. 

Holiday Drive

Family Supportive Housing, San Jose

Our annual holiday drive for San Jose Family Supportive Housing was a success. San Jose Family supportive housing provides temporary housing and compassionate support to families experiencing homelessness, guiding them from crisis to stability and self-sufficiency. We donated comforters, bed sheets, towels, granola bars, fruit snacks, comforters, sheet sets, bathmats, diapers, trash bins, and blankets. We thank our generous supporters for their thoughtfulness and generosity. 

A grant of $2500 was made to Manjula Meraki Mental health clinic which offers mental health and wellness services to the students, seniors, and staff of Sevalaya and to rural women who are farmers and caregivers.

Sevathon

We had a successful Sevathon on August 25, 2024, where we raised around $1500. Sevalaya USA sincerely thanks the 46 supporters for participating in the event and visiting the booth. We can’t do our work without your support. 

Our supporter Lalita Subramanian’s birthday fundraiser raised funds to install sanitary pad vending and incinerator machines in the ladies toilets in Mahakavi Bharathiyar Higher Secondary School and skills training centers.

Fundraiser by a highschooler

Shanthi, a high school student, raised funds to buy notebooks for the elementary school students in Mahakavi Bharathiyar Higher Secondary School. She visited the campus in November and distributed them to the students.

Partner News:

Our partner organization Sevalaya has opened centers in Karnataka and Kerala and now has 35 branches with schools, tuition centers in tribal villages, and community colleges in rural areas. Sevalaya has won the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research’s National Level Social Impact Award - 2024 as the top organization in the country in providing Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation to the underprivileged. Congratulations to Sevalaya. 

We are also looking for volunteers to join our team. For additional information, please visit us online at sevalaya.us and facebook.com/SevalayaUSA.

Sincerely,

Sevalaya team

August 2024, Vol. 7, No. 2

Dear supporters of Sevalaya USA,

Thank you for your support! During fiscal year 2023-24, we supported the education of 648 students exceeding our goal of supporting 600 students for the year. We have exciting news to share!  In June 2024, students at the Mahakavi Bharathiyar Higher Secondary School showed exemplary results in the various exams.

• Students had a passing grade of 99.2% in XII boards, 99.4% in XI and 97 % in X board exams. 

• 141 out of 142 students in Std XII, 165 out of 166 students in Std XI and 128 out of 132 students in Std X cleared their board exams. 

• 115 students in Std XII, 112 students in Std XI and 91 students in Std X have scored more than first division marks.

Heartfelt thanks to supporter Lalita Subramanian, whose birthday fundraiser raised $1500 toward installing sanitary pad vending and incinerator machines in the toilets for women in Sevalaya School and skills training centers.

Thanks to a donor, a Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water System was set up at Sevalaya Janaki Ammal Vijayaragavachariyar Memorial Senior home impacting 30 residents. 

Project Mental Wellness offers mental health and wellness services to the students, seniors, and staff of Sevalaya as well as to rural women who are farmers and caregivers. An average of 300 people have benefited every month through this service.

Supporter S. Raghavendran visited the Sevalaya campus and was full of praise for the campus. “We bought cookies from bakery for a family event, drank rose milk and organic buttermilk as we toured the campus, and departed after a well-balanced nutritious meal…The growth mindset Sevalaya kids have, the gratitude and happiness the senior citizens express willingly when we toured made the 2 hour visit on a summer day go by without feeling a bit of exhaustion.”

In November 2023, Sevalaya received a grant from Ekam Foundations to support the vocational training of 120 students for six months in Community college in Kasuva Village in Thiruvallur District of Tamil Nadu. In the first batch which ended in May 2024, 20 students were trained as electricians and 20 students were trained in Refrigerator & AC repairs.  A total of 39 students (out of 40) have been placed in jobs.

Sevalaya USA is participating in ICC Sevathon, 2024. Please register for the event and support this work. We are raising funds to support the education of the underprivileged children studying in the school run by Sevalaya in Chennai.

https://runsignup.com/Race/CA/LosGatos/ICCSevathon

We are also looking for volunteers to join our team. For additional information, please visit us online at sevalaya.us and facebook.com/SevalayaUSA.

Sincerely,

Sevalaya team

january 2024, Vol. 7, No. 1

Dear supporters of Sevalaya USA,

Happy New Year to all our friends and supporters. Since April 2023, we have supported the education of 258 students. We are still far away from achieving our goal of supporting 600 students by March 2024. We need your generous contribution to achieve our goal. We have only two more months.

Thank you to supporters Bala Shanmugam and Babita Giri of B&B Entertainments for their generous donation and for including us as one of their community partners for the QFR Classic Tour with Subhasree Thanikachalam concert on September 15, 2023. We also appreciate their donation of a booth at the event venue and time on the stage. Thank you to realtor Manu Changotra for her sponsorship of the event and Mahadevan Sridharan for donating 25 concert tickets to Sevalaya USA.

We had twenty-eight participants in the RunWalkForSeva fundraiser from October 06, 2023 to October 23, 2023. We raised $1561 through this effort.

Thank you to the participants and the donors.

A big thank you to the many supporters who donated towards Diwali celebrations at the Kasuva Village, located in Thiruvallur District, Tamil Nadu. The children and seniors received new clothes to celebrate Diwali.

In November, we received a grant from EKAM Foundation to support the vocational training of 120 students for six months in Community college in Kasuva. Sixty (60) students will be trained to qualify as electricians and another sixty (60) students will be trained in Refrigerator & AC repairs. Thank you to EKAM Foundation for their support.

This year, an average of 300 people per month have benefited through Project Mental Wellness. It offers mental health and wellness services to the students, seniors, and staff of Sevalaya and to rural women who are farmers and caregivers.

One of our supporters Mahadevan Sridharan visited the Sevalaya Old Age Home in Thanjavur and met with the staff members, Shanmugapriya and Saravan and the seniors living at the home. He made a generous donation to the home. Thank you.

In December, Board Member Anandi Lakshmikanthan visited Janaki Vijayaraghav Achariyar Memorial senior home in Zamin Endathur, and met with the seniors who live there. They were excited to talk about their daily routine, evening walks around the village, medical care, and visits to places outside the senior home. Anandi also visited the community college in the same campus and met with the tailoring program instructor and the students. Our thanks to Anandan of Sevalaya Chennai for coordinating this visit.

In addition, congratulations to our partner Sevalaya Chennai who won the national award for Social Impact instituted by SP Jain Institute of Management and Research of Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan.

To join our volunteer team, please visit us online at sevalaya.us and facebook.com/SevalayaUSA.

Sincerely,

Sevalaya team[1]

[1] Board members: Anandi Lakshmikanthan, Venkat Prasad Manickavasagam, Mani Subramaniyan

Legal advisor: Pooja Sudarshan

Newsletter: Vidya Kilambi, Anandi Lakshmikanthan