Annual Report 2012-2013

 

NSW Indian Welfare Association Inc

ANNUAL REPORT

2012 -2013

 

 

Dear members

 

The financial year 2012-13 has already drawn to a close and we are getting ready to have our next AGM on the 25 August 2013.

The last year 2012-13 has been quite eventful with many activities conducted for the members. A summary of those activities is provided for your information below.

We request that you attend the AGM to be held on 25 Aug 2013 at the Dundas community centre between 100 PM and 4 PM. If you are interested in being on the committee please inform the secretary. Nomination form is attached for you to fill and lodge at the AGM.

During the year we held four outdoor activities, two indoor activities and scores of community speaking events.

 

Outdoor activities

 

Picnic to Leura:

A picnic to Leura was organised by the association on the 6 October 2012 with about 45 people taking part. On our way in the bus, we had a competition to identify the Carnatic raagas in various film songs which was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We had a lovely time visiting three gardens. Though the weather was not very conducive to such an occasion, the seniors and youngsters enjoyed what was on offer. We followed this by a visit to the Blue Mountains and had lunch there at a park. Members strolled around Picnic Point and we returned to Sydney at around 600 PM.

 

Christmas lunch:

To reflect the multi religious nature of our association, we organised a Christmas party at Merrylands central garden on the 16 December 2012. The turnout was a disappointment with only six people turning up. With plenty of yummy home made food on offer the participants not only had a good time eating and chatting, but had leftovers to take home and enjoy too.

 

Jeevan Dhan Trophy - Cricket Match:

To promote organ and tissue donation in the Indian community, the association joined with Transplant Australia and held a cricket competition between the NSWIWA sponsored team and the Australian Transplant Cricket Club on the 17 March 2013. This is being held for the second year in running. This year the Organ and Tissue Authority provided funding to Transplant Australia.

Robyn Hookes presented the trophy to the winning Indian Community XI.  The Indian XI scored 237 runs in their allotted 30 overs whilst the Australian Transplant CC made 168 runs.  The Indian team was led by Prem Krithivasan whilst ATCC was led by Paul Wulff.  The game was umpired by Prof. Richard Allen, Director of Transplantation Services, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Malli Iyer, Manager of the Indian Community XI.

Dr. Harinath,The President  of Cricket NSW, Stepan Kerkyasharian, Community Relations Commissioner, NSW, Greg Chappell, National Talent Manager, Cricket Australia and Simon Taufel, ICC Umpires Elite Panel sent messages of support to the event.

About 100 visitors, friends and family attended the event and they were treated to a tasty Indian meal during the lunch break.

 

Picnic to Cessnock:

A second picnic was organised on 1 June 2013 to the Hare Rama temple at Cessnock. About 45 people took part and enjoyed the lovely outing. We had a bit of time to go around the campus and pat the holy cows there. We also took part in the bhajans and Aarthi and it was pleasing to note that many danced to the lovely devotional music. After that the mandir served us delicious lunch and all of us ate sumptuously. We then set off to visit a cheese factory in Hunter valley but to be frank that was a disappointment as it turned out to be just a cheese shop. We finally returned to Sydney around 600 PM.

 

Indoor activities

 

Diwali party:

On 4 November 2012, we organised a Diwali party at Dundas community centre. About 90 members and their family took part. The event included a Q&A style discussion on the topic “What does Deepavali mean to those living downunder?” The panellists comprised two adults and two youngsters to provide varied perspective. Few from the audience also shared their views. This was followed by dinner which was delicious. In the second session we had a tamil drama “Vaddichamy”acripted by Mr Sambamurthy with the cast being  Vijayakumar Ramamurthy, Suchie Vijayakumar, Ganapathy Ramamurthy, Shankar Ramanathan and Sambamurthy.

 

Annual Day:

On 20 July the association organised a light music programme conducted by the “Sound of Music Orchestra”. The programme was attended by about 200 members and non-members and was a grand success. The light music programme featured about 23 songs from Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam films and 5 dance performances by children and young adults. The experience was magnificent with the audience enjoying every moment. During the break, the attendees were treated to home cooked dinner (along with “Garamagaram” sponsoring some delicious food). We also held a raffle on this day.

 

Monday meeting and discussions:

 

Our regular Monday forums featuring community speaking events continued for most part of the year. The following were the meetings and useful speeches that members enjoyed.

2 July 2012 – Mrs Lakshmi Raman on relationships

23 July 2012 – Mr Vaitheeswaran on walking with my heart

13 Aug 2012 – Indian Independence Day

10 Sep 2012 - Mr Janaki Raman on Mahakavi Bharathiar.

8 Oct 2012 – Mrs Balam Lakshmanan on Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

23 Oct 2012 – General discussions by Dr Sampath & Mr Nat Iyer

12/11/2012 - Talk by Ms Yvonne Snowdon from Dept. of Health on “Health Issues for Seniors”.

26/11/2012 - Talk by Holroyd Local Police Commander from Holroyd Police Station on “Home Securities for Seniors”.

10/12/2012 - Talk by Ms Sadhana Kumar from Centre Link on “Current changes in Pension and other benefits”.

27 Dec 2012 – Book review by Mrs Shantha Sampath

25 Feb 2013 – Talk by Mr Samba Murthy

11 Mar 2013 – Mr Thangaraj on Indian History

25 Mar 2013 – Talk by Mrs Caroline Romeo

8 Apr 2013 – Talk by Mrs Lakshmi Raman

15 Apr 2013 – Tamil New Year Day – With special lunch

22 April 2013 - General discussions

13 May 2013 – Mothers day

27 May 2013 – Health talk

24 June 2013 – Medicare local

8 Jul 2013 – Talk by a cancer society member on five most common cancers.

 

Other details:

 

We did not get any community grant this year. We are trying our best to garner additional grants so that we can have more programmes. We are happy to announce that in 2013-14, we have already received a volunteer grant for 2013 and we will announce the activity relating to this event very soon.

The association also tried to promote a creative writing competition but unfortunately, with not much interest evinced by the members, this event did not go ahead.

 

Condolences:

 

 

The association thanks all the members for their support during 2012-13 and seeks their continued support for the year ahead.

 

Sankara Raman

Secretary

NSW IWA