We the Dallas Regional Chapter of American Telugu Association (ATA) had a good successful regional meeting on December 13, 2008 at Aahar Indian Restaurant. This meeting is conducted by Gurram Srinivas Reddy ATA Texas Coordinator and the chief guest for the event is Mr. Jithender Reddy president Elect of ATA. The meeting was called for to lay out regional activities that we are planning to implement in Dallas, Texas.
All the following programs are directed for the benefit of Telugu community at large in DFW Metro area.
I am sure after it is properly executed it will make ATA the most meaningful, useful and vibrant organization.
These are the Dallas ATA committees and its members
1. Healthcare & Medical Programs and its members:
Dr. Mahesh Tummala, Dr. Raj Narender, Dr. Vani Duvvuri, Dr. Karuna Vangala, Dr. Srilatha Reddy
Issues:
There are several people in Dallas area who are either on temporary visas or on permanent visas and not having medical insurance. This is part of 44 million US residents that do not have medical insurance. There is a high prevalence of diabetes, heart problems and other major medical illnesses that our community members are affected. Providing a cheaper healthcare screening will help minimize the damage.
Solution:
With over 100+ Telugu-speaking medical professionals living in DFW area, it will be a great opportunity to provide free medical screening for all local un-insured Telugu population, Several organizations like TIPS-Texas Indian Physicians society have already been doing this and have worked out all the procedures including logistics, malpractice insurance issues etc. which can be emulated. There are several Telugu doctors who participate in this TIPS program and they may extend their services for this ATA sponsored program.
I believe that this will go a long way in not only gaining the goodwill of local Telugu population but will help in ATA membership drive.
2. Senior Citizen Programs and its members
Jagpal Naini, Bhima Penta, Ragupati Bhoorla, Ramkrishna Rodda , Ben Gupta, Satyan Kalyandurg
Issues:
With the increase in DFW Telugu population (IT/H1-B etc), several parents are visiting their children in USA. Besides them there are several people who worked for many years in US and have retired. Most of these people have no social interaction other than 4 or 5 annual Telugu gatherings. Most of them have a desire to meet other people and spend time with their age groups. Currently there are no such organized activities.
Solution:
I think having a quarterly (or as deem appropriate) get-togethers /picnics etc. will help them feel better and will enjoy their American visit better. Organizing a bus-trip to an interesting place will be a good thought to follow. Also, local picnics with rest of their family members is another thought.
3. Immigration/Citizenship/Visa
Raj Akula, Ram Reddy Kasarla, Ravi Venishetty, Rao Kalvala, Ramana Juvvadi Arvind Muppidi.
Issues:
There are several people who have immigration/citizenship and visa related issues among our Telugu community.
Indian Visa: The Indian Consulate with the help of local Indian Associations conducts Visa camps every month. While most of the Indian visa related issues are taken care by these camps certain tough cases need special attention where ATA can render some help in working with the local Indian associations in the Visa camps as well as having a direct contact at the Indian Consulate offices in our case Houston, Texas.
Immigration: While most of the immigration issues are taken care by various legal agencies, ATA can help take up these issues with several Telugu immigration attorneys. This will not only bring goodwill from petitioners but will help the attorneys.
Citizenship: For many of the Telugu speaking permanent residents of USA the idea of becoming US Citizens is not popular. While we enjoy the benefits of this country we need to do our best to serve it better by becoming citizens. This way our voice can be better heard where and when required.
Solutions:
While the above issues are very complex, they can be better addressed by providing Immigration/Citizenship/Visa seminars to provide better understanding of the laws, rules, and regulations as well as provide necessary guidance in seeking proper help.
There is also a need for providing emergency Visa related services through our contacts at the Indian Consulate/Embassy. This is very important service to Telugu community both from social/family side as well as from business development to India side.
There are several Telugu speaking attorneys/professionals to offer help in these matters. We just need to provide a platform for both parties to meet and exchange.
Joining hands with IANT-Indian Association of North Texas or Kerala Association in helping out with the Visa camps or starting a new Visa camp altogether is also need to be pursued. Currently both the above organizations are holding bimonthly visa camps alternatively.
4. Youth/Student Related Programs
Bhanu Choudhary, Suresh Guttimukkala, Shashi Kanaparthy, Surya Naidu, Ranjith
Issues & Solutions:
These are two different categories – Youth who are our children who are raised here and secondly Students from India. Of course both are youth and both are students.
Our children who are raised here in US have little understanding of our culture, language and social interactions with fellow Indians. The cause is lack of exposure and opportunities to immerse in Indian culture, language and social interactions. This can be improved by exposing them to various activities to fit the bill and give them a role to perform instead of being mere attendees.
Students from India arrive with lot of hope, ambitions and with a significant financial commitment taken up by their parents. Also being away from home would put them into several social, health, financial and psychological issues in addition to academic loads. Several students fail to make the grades though they have tremendous potential to perform well. Our organizations should extend the necessary help in alleviating their fears and help them financially where required/deserving. Providing some form of community health checks will also help.
Women's Programs
Smt. Sandya Gavva, Smt. Bhanu Ivatury, Smt. Indira Konda , Smt. Shyama Rumalla, Smt. Poorna Nehru.
Issues & Solutions:
Following normal statistics, 50% of the US-Telugu population is women. The issues they are faced range from social, economic, educational, jobs, spousal abuse and health. While all these issues cannot be helped out completely we need to provide the necessary mechanism to provide self-help groups as well as provide community-wide support groups.
Women's forums should be formed catering to each of the main areas of trouble and issues should be discussed with an idea to provide end-to-end solution. Our organization should provide the platform for such forums and provide necessary knowledgeable moderators/speakers. The success (and failure) stories should be anonymous and shared among people.
Job-search, spouse-search is now becoming important areas for attention.
Other important area is the spousal abuse. Though there are several social workers available, we need to provide immediate and confidential service organizations to provide timely help.
Healthcare as mentioned in the first program also applies here.
6. Business/Technology Programs
Jaipal Reddy, Dayaker Puskoor, Kris Reddy, Manohar Jangeti, Sanjay Reddy, Krishna Kurapati
Issues & Solutions:
In today's global economy, countries like India are progressing very well in the technology field offering various ITES, BPO and R&D services encompassing hot areas like semiconductors, computers, biotechnology, medical research etc. There has been a strong upswing in the trade between US and India as well as business related travel, joint ventures, direct foreign investment, M & A activity between both countries. This is a good thing for both countries.
Our organization has several members who are entrepreneurs can share some of their experiences by organizing seminars to educate. ATA can focus on improving the environment to minimize any bottlenecks related to business law, rules, infrastructure, travel, human capital, governmental issues, intellectual property rights, manufacturing, marketing, sales & distribution issues etc.
Holding frequent birds-of-feather meetings with focus on the above issues as well as having lectures by key people involved in the above issues will be helpful.
Fostering entrepreneurial activities among our membership will greatly benefit current and future generations.
7. Social/Cultural Programs
Smt. Kasturi Inaganti, Smt. Kiran Kancherla, Smt. Indu Reddy, Smt. Anita Reddy, Smt. Hima bindu
Issues & Solutions:
When we arrived here from India, we brought with us several important soft assets like our culture, heritage, language and social interactions. It is our important duty to pass the good aspects of these to our next generation. We recognize this fact and hold several social and cultural events to promote and propagate these assets.
The reason several of our youngsters do not really take up these activities as they become youth is that they are not very comfortable with several bad aspects of our assets like caste, economic status, hometown politics and local politics. Also we do not give them interactive leadership roles and limit them to mere spectatorship roles. If we can find a better way to impart right values by us becoming the role models, we could make them better citizens with old country heritage and cultural assets.
8. ATA Membership Enrollment Programs
Gurram Srinivas Reddy, Shri Kesavulu, Pavan raj, Swaroop Kundur, Venkat Musuku
Issues & Solutions:
Though there are several hundreds and thousands of Telugu people in our region, our membership roles do not reflect them. Most of them do not want to become members with some pre-conceived notions based on caste and other detrimental thoughts. Also, we will make necessary efforts to remove such fears by being open and transparent in our conduct of offices of leadership as well as programs we offer. We will provide appropriate programs that will attract all sections of our Telugu People. With our programs people will look at ATA as a great Telugu community service organization and I think this should automatically increase the new membership.
With Regards,
Gurram Srinivas Reddy
ATA Texas Co-ordinator
856-465-9344
