Tamil Nadu Foundation Celebrates Mother’s Day

Dr. Ram Sivaraman
SUGARLAND: The Tamil Nadu Foundation (TNF) Houston Chapter Kickoff meeting with the Mother’s day celebration was held at the Madras Pavilion on May 11. TNF Houston Chapter Chairman Dr. Ram Sivaraman welcomed the members, life members and other guests and introduced special guests of honor Mohan and Meera Nagrajan of SUN TV’s Kalyanamalai at the opening with a brief introduction of TNF and its mission “No Kids Left Behind in Education”. Mohan and Meera Nagarajan mentioned in their speech that education helps a generation and in Chennai currently there is lots of money to go around for good cause like TNF’s goals. Both of them with media support offered help when we need them. Musical events by talented artists were planned by Rajan Radhakrishnan, a life member and a staunch supporter of TNF and Raj Thiagarajan of current TNF Houston Chapter Cultural Coordinator, followed by the speaker’s sessions.

Bala Balachandran – Vice Chairman/Treasurer presented current 2014 team members (Dr. Leela Krishnamurthy, Raj Thiagarajan, Dr. Kamala Raghavan, and Govindan Somaskandan) to the participants of the gala event and the goals for the next two years. Dr. G.N Prasad- Secretary delivered the vote of thanks at the end of the musical event. TNF Houston Chapter celebrated the Mother’s day with a special offering of long stem roses by each of their spouses to their loved ones along with a heartfelt pledge and donation on behalf of the loved ones to TNF. Mother’s day was celebrated with a special dinner at the Madras Pavilion, with few drawn out special prizes for the lucky ones. A generous pledge, donation and support of $17,802 was raised from the life members, members and other participants on that day. Govindan Somaskandan of current TNF Fund Raising coordinator played a key role in that and he thanked all the donors for their sincere support for this great cause. Abhinaya Govindan, a High School Senior, gave an eloquent speech about what she heard about TNF and its causes and subsequently volunteered to be TNF Houston Chapter Youth Coordinator. The kickoff generated an enthusiastic momentum of heartfelt support that will spread to Sugarland, Pearland, and Katy and to other Houston metro areas for the days to come.
TNF Houston Chapter advisory committee members Dr. Appan, Sam Kannappan, Dr. Padmini Ranganathan, Rajan Radhakrishnan, and Srikanth Venugopalan of Meenakshi Temple Society, and Partha Krishnaswamy of Bharathi Kalai Manram informed about the past activities and gave a brief history of TNF Houston chapter and its goals.
Tamil Nadu Foundation (TNF), founded in 1974 in Baltimore, is the only overseas humanitarian organization solely focused in Tamil Nadu. It has been founded with a mission is to promote education with soft skills training and coaching for kids of slow learners in the very rural areas. The TNF Implements a wide range of projects with the funds it raises every year from its members, life members ,men women and children – Disaster relief to short and long term needs in education, Health and hygiene, rural development and Women’s empowerment. It has executed 600 individual donor-sponsored and board-sponsored projects (currently 83 active projects) so far and holds a bi-annual national convention and regional charity events all across the U.S. to create awareness, enroll new members, and generate funds for projects.
TNF’s current focus is on rural school education. Our Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of Tamil Nadu enables us to work with any government school in the state. TNF has developed the TNF-ABC Model (Achieving academic proficiency, Boosting their morale, and Championing for their aspirations) based on six years of experience which focuses on panchayat union school children.
The TNF has 40 years of track record of successfully implementing projects. It has Tax exemption status in the U.S. [501 (c) 3], in India [80 G] and FCRA approval. 95% of the donations go directly to the donor’s project and the remaining 5% is also invested in humanitarian projects. Therefore 100% of your donation goes directly to the needy. Unique resources are available in Tamil Nadu to implement and audit projects – with dedicated staff and Regional Project Coordinators in the districts.
TNF’s Tamil Nadu Chapter Board is served by veterans in public service (former IAS and IPS officials, leading humanitarians, lawyers, and industrialists). National Tamil Convention held for the first time in the history of Houston, and it was well attended & well received. Several highly talented celebrity artists from India came. Local talents from Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin participated. TNF Houston Chapter had raised awareness and funds and donated $53,240 towards education projects for rural Tamil Nadu. The following schools were benefitted from the funding support:
•Jegannathapuram school in Pon
neri Taluk ,Thiruvallur District – helped complete construction of the school building which was unfinished due to lack of funds.
•Peranamallur Block Thiruvannamalai District: Water Tank project for four schools
•Kattupakkam Coaching Center  Vellore District
•Jegannathapuram school  Ponneri Taluk, Thiruvallur District
TNF Houston Chapter’s current goals are to continue to raise funds for strengthening education: with special coaching and soft skills training for the slow learners (kids in rural area schools).
Total project cost for 5 Schools (Govt High Schools at Mittapetai/ Elathur/ Kunnathur/ Anawarthiganpettai/ Kattupakkam) for this year : 6.1 Lakhs; Funds received: 1.6 Lakhs; Funds needed: 4.5 Lakhs. TNF also will support other ongoing TNF Projects: ANBALAYAM / ABC projects and other Individual Sponsored Projects.
To become a life member, Log on to www.tnfusa.org. Complete the simple online application form. Life Membership fee ($300 family, $200 individual)