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

August 23,Vol 6 No. 2

Dear supporters of Sevalaya USA,

Thank you for your support! During the first half of 2023 we supported the education of 412 students and are getting closer to the goal of supporting 600 students for the year. We have exciting news to share! In June 2023, all the Std. XII students in the Mahakavi Bharathiyar Higher Secondary School passed their final exams. The school had a 95% pass rate for the Std. X exam.

In 2023, grants were made to support sports training on campus where students get coached in various sports like volleyball, basketball, athletics, football, and handball.

A grant to a hospital in Gudalur, Nilgiris district has been providing health and social services to the tribals and locals.

This year, Sevalaya Board has a new project, Project Mental Health & Wellness at Mahatma Gandhi Medical Centre, to offer mental health and wellness services to the students, seniors, and staff of Sevalaya and to rural women who are farmers and caregivers. Rural women face challenges including gender discrimination, poverty, and poor physical health. Besides these, they are also exposed to domestic violence, which is one of the main risk factors for common mental disorders in rural women. This project offers individual sessions and group sessions for patients. Every month, an average of 300 people benefit from this clinic.

Some additional projects were accomplished this year thanks to grants from our supporters:

Repairs were made to the roof of the Girl’s Orphanage in the Kasuva campus.

Prayer Meeting

A prayer room was constructed in a senior home in Zamin Endathur, which houses 30 seniors.

Board member Anandi Lakshmikanthan received a grant on behalf of Sevalaya USA on June 10, 2023 from Tri-Valley Kannada Sangha (TVKS) at their SnehaSetu event. Thank you to TVKS for extending help to peer organizations that are making a positive impact on the community. We acknowledge their wonderful team of volunteers and the board members who made everyone feel welcome.

Sevalaya USA would like to thank two students Jahnavi and Jishnu for establishing a spoken English class for the students of Sevalaya. In June 2023, Jahnavi raised funds at her Carnatic Vocal Arangetram, which will be used to provide art education to the stuents. We thank her for her fundraising efforts at such a young age and wish her the best in her future endeavors.

Thank you to longtime supporter Mr. Vijaianand! This year, he raised enough money through his annual fundraiser to sponsor the education of 25 children and added two more endowments, which brings the total number of endowments to 13 children.

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