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Dr.Reddy with Temple Officers and Volunteers |
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Sai Health Fair 2014-An Exemplary Outreach
Initiative for the Bhutanese in Atlanta Text and Pics.By Mahadev Desai Dr. Sujatha Reddy has been the driving force behind 30 SAI Health Fairs-a charitable forum providing free and low cost medical services to the poor, uninsured, and the underinsured. With her contagious enthusiasm and innate compassion and resolve to help the underprivileged, she tries to help whoever she can. And so during the harsh winter weather last year, her thoughts turned to the Bhutanese people in Atlanta. The Bhutanese refugees arrived in Georgia in 2007, under the US Resettlement program. Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy located at the Eastern end of the Himalayas separated from Nepal by the Indian State of Sikkim. Many Nepalese had migrated to Bhutan in the 1800s and settled down in Southern Bhutan. These Bhutanese were the citizens of the country. However, in the past two decades, their citizenship was revoked, properties confiscated and they were expelled from Bhutan because they were predominantly Hindus from Nepal. About 140,000 of them have lived in UN refugee camps for the past fifteen to twenty years. The US has offered to settle 60,000 of these refugees over a five year period and Atlanta is one of the resettlement centers.1.1 square mile of Clarkston in Georgia is home to refugees from over 40 countries and 54 languages.
There are about 5,000 Bhutanese living here. In the past SEWA International supported by 31 leading Georgia community organizations have helped these refugees to settle down and integrate in the community at large. They have been helped with food, clothing, shelter, home appliances, toys,etc. They have been helped to find jobs, given driving lessons, English language classes etc. But lot remains to be done. Mother Teresa said, “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop”. Firm believer in this, Dr.Reddy met with Ms.Manikala Basnet,President of the Hindu Buddhist Spiritual Center in Clarkston to ascertain how best she could help the Bhutanese community. From December 2013 onwards she loaded her car and made seven trips to the Temple with warm clothing, car seats, strollers,empty suitcases, etc. And handed this over to Manikala to distribute among the needy Bhutanese people.
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