TAMA’s Mahila Sadassu on 10/10/09 was a great success. Groups from three different generations participated very excitingly. Dr. Suneetha Manyam, (Licensed counselor working at Georgia State University) led & facilitated the discussion around different topics related to Telugu culture & heritage.

The discussion started with how dating is viewed in Indian community & consequences of it for our teenagers. In addition, the discussion focused on how to tackle the cultural differences from parental as well as teenager’s perspective. The other topics were on parental expectations, its pressure on school children, disciplinary techniques followed in our Telugu families, the importance of healthy parent-child bonding etc.

The discussion went on very lively for two and half hours. Participants were very active and shared their valuable opinions based on their self-reflections. Ms. Usha & Ms. Asha (High School teachers from Cobb County) shared their own real life experiences from their work environments. Dr.Jagan, Psychiatrist, talked about the ‘Identity formation in teenagers & its impact on the whole family’. He also stressed that parent’s needs to understand the fact that today’s Telugu youth are confused with cultural conflicts and it is every parent’s responsibility to help their kids during this difficult period towards successful transition. The response from the audience was phenomenal. They had several questions and contributed tremendously for the discussion. They thanked TAMA for organizing this event and requested more programs like this in the near future.

NATS team thanks Atlanta community THANK YOU ATLANTA….

We had an overwhelming response to the clothing drive by NATS. It is heart warming to see such a response from the community to help our brothers and sisters affected by the floods.

We collected over 10,000 lbs of clothes and shipped them in 250 boxes.

We had about 35 volunteers work for more than 9 hours from 1 P.M. to past 10 P.M. Volunteers were from a 7 year old to 59.

People were still calling at 10:30 PM. Since we cannot accept any more clothes, if you still want to contribute clothes, please contact Dr. Ravi Sharma from Hindu Temple of Atlanta for the donations.

If you want to make a monetary contribution, NATS and NTR foundation are doing a match upto $5000 of the checks we receive. That will make it $3 for every $1 you contribute. You can mail them to : 220 Prospect Place, Alpharetta, GA 30005 with check payable to NATS.

Thanks

NATS volunteers.