Community Conversations
Sushila Singh:
I live in Carlisle, a small town in Massachusetts, population of about 5200 residents. I have been living here for the past 10 years. When I first moved in I was looking for Indian families to celebrate Diwali. It started with sending email to 5 families but ended up 35 families responding. As a result I, with the help of two of my friends, rented a hall in a restaurant and had a big celebration. The tradition continues for 10 years and now we are planning to include everyone in the town to make it bigger.
Shweta and Santosh Salvi:
Volunteering: A Joyful Journey
During November 2020, as the NEMM presidency term was nearing its end, my life partner, Sandhya/Shweta, and I decided to sponsor a dinner at the Nashua Soup Kitchen (NSK) to celebrate Diwali. We not only sponsored dinner on a Friday but also took part in serving the meals. This experience was so fulfilling that we decided to sponsor another dinner during the Christmas holidays.
Our joy in this endeavor inspired us to share our experiences with family and friends. In doing so, we discovered that 10-12 families were also interested in supporting the community by preparing and serving dinners at NSK.
In the first week of January 2021, we approached NSK, and they graciously allowed us to prepare and serve dinner every Thursday. Over the past four years, we have collectively served over 20,000+ dinners to 100-120 homeless Nashua residents. Our project has grown to include 48+ families, divided into four groups led by Santosh Salvi, Meenakshi Shinde, Radha Phadke, and Rajeev Agarwal. This way, each group serves once a month, and each volunteer will contribute/cook/serve once in a month. Our volunteer families are highly motivated and fulfill their commitments without any reminders, coordinating purely through text messages.
Most of our volunteer families live in the Maplewood community, so we have named our group the “Maplewood Volunteer Group.”
Meenal Dayma:
My resolutions for 2025 towards my community are to continue to teach at Shishubharti. Educate children to develop a sense of well-informed cultural pride by introducing them to Indian arts, customs, languages, religion, history, geography, and current events, one hour every Sunday.
Organize activities such as cultural performances, arts and crafts exhibition with the students.
Since last 14 years, I have been exploring the hidden talents in the children and promoting them. It has been a cherishing and learning experience of mentoring more than 150 children.
Manjiri Patil:
The New Year is always an inspiring time. As part of your New Year’s resolutions, I want to give back to our community.
Dignity Matters is a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization dedicated to addressing period poverty by providing free menstrual products. I have been volunteering at their warehouse to help with product distribution. Also involved with organizing a collection in neighborhood, friends and families.
Another initiative is the monthly donation for Worcester homeless Shelter. We work as a group to donate homemade food and fruits to homeless shelters.
While the donation of food or items is always appreciated, a financial donation can also provide a charity or cause. Me along with three other friends are doing yearly fundraisers to donate money to India (Pune) based charity named Snehwan which takes responsibility for the education, rehabilitation of the underprivileged children of the farmers.
There are countless ways you can make true your new year’s resolutions to give back to the community this year. Consider creating an impact on society by donating or doing something for a good cause.