Dear Community Members,
Namaskar: Happy New Year, 2079! We wish you a happy new year and a loving farewell to the past, as well as success in the future and wonderful memories. Additionally, I’d want to thank everyone for their confidence in and support of the Nepalese Association of Florida (NAF). NAF was able to perform a third outdoor program in April to celebrate Nepal New Year 2079 in Tampa thanks to the beginning of the Nepali New Year. Many members of the Nepali community from various parts of Florida attend the event. Our current team members are trying to provide more community-focused programs and enhance the Nepalese community in Florida, carrying on the association’s tradition of working with our community members.
The goal of the NAF Community Engagement Program, which is overseen by Mr. Madhu Nepal (Tallahassee), is to introduce community programs that are useful to residents and young people. Under his leadership, we organized up an information session on “NRN-Card and Foreign Direct Investment in Nepal,” a program that covered a wide range of NRN-related topics. To educate the people about NRN acts, NAF will be bringing two more series programs on the subject. Additionally, Community Engagement facilitated a session about two regional initiatives: “All4Ball Sports for Youth,” which is led by Mrs. Leena Basnyet, and “Pulmonary Hypertension AssociationNepal,” which is led by Dr. Chooda Mani Khanal, a former NAF president.
NAF will continue to introduce additional local initiatives and work with local organizations in the coming days as part of its goal to support local initiatives and organizations. The NAF-Youth Forum Coordinator, Ms. Shailee Banskota, and eleven young members continue to work on the networking event. NAF-Youth Forum will launch two podcasts soon. Additionally, they intend to mentor Chitwan schoolchildren in conjunction with the Health Foundation Nepal (HFN) which was led by Dr. Manoj Bhattarai of HFN. The NAF Youth Scholarship has been a top priority for our Youth Forum and continues to raise funds. After establishing Connect Nepal Project, with the financial support of the Nepalese Association of Florida (NAF) in coordination with Pulmonary Hypertension Association-Nepal (PHA-Nepal), Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (KAHS), Yuwas Bikash Kendra-Sisne, Global Nepalese ICT Consortium, and Non-Resident Nepalese Association-Florida Chapter (NRNA-Florida Chapter) ran “2 Days Health Camp” focusing on screening kids under 15 for Pulmonary Hypertension and Women’s Health. A total of 892 people have received services from the free health camp which includes 137 women and 755 students have been conducted on June 19th and 20th. NAF continues to support PHA-Nepal programs in the future to further screen more children in that area in the future.
Mr. Narayan Neupane Coordinator for Connect Nepal ProjectNAF participated in the event and plays an important role to run the health camp. We continue to work on our Adopt-a highway program for civic involvement, which is highlighted on the front cover of this issue of Indreni to highlight the program’s accomplishments. Mr. Bimal Nepal, our former president, continues to oversee the initiative and has plans to extend it to further state cities. The “Adopt the Street” campaign was formally launched in Tallahassee by the Nepalese Association of Florida (NAF)-Tallahassee Chapter with a similar premise. Dr. Suraj Bajgain, President of the NAF-Tallahassee Chapter, directed and opened the event. I co-organized the “NAF Past Presidential Meeting – Looking Back 30 Years And Future Direction” in April with my general secretary, Dr. SK Sharma.
All previous presidents came to the conference to contribute their knowledge and ideas for upcoming programs. In addition to the Non-Resident Nepal-Florida Chapter, the International Nepal Literature SocietyFlorida Chapter, the Nepali Community Center in Orlando, the Madheshi Association in America-Florida Chapter, and the Newah Organization of America Florida Chapter, we also maintain regular communication with these groups. In order to discuss how each group can assist and work together, NAF organized a meeting in March. We also scheduled Annual General Meeting and Dashain Meet on October 15th, 2022, at West Palm Beach. NAF Treasurer Mrs. Priti Bhandary will coordinate the event with local community members.
In the end, we will continue bringing more community-focused programs in the coming days. We want all communities to stay safe and please feel free to contact us via social media, telephone, or in-person with one of our representatives located throughout the state.
With best wishes,
Niraj Shrestha, PhD