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Greater Atlanta Tamil Sangam (GATS): 2008 Charity Activities
Please join with your family and friends
Let us join hands to support the community
Dear Members,
Thank you for your continued help and support. GATS is proud to join hands with Atlanta Food Community Food bank to distribute food for individuals and families in need. Please support our community and GATS by volunteering with us for the event. Kindly mark your calendars. The activity is going to be held on Saturday, July 26th from 1:00 to 4:00pm. To volunteer for this event, please contact GATS Charity or Mr. Martin J. Vincent or Mr. K.R Sundararaghavan. The details of the program is attached below for your consideration.
Warm Regards,
GATS Charity
Atlanta Community Food Bank - Product Rescue Center (PRC!)
The Product Rescue Center (PRC) provides quality food, beverages, and health products to over 800 non-profit partner agencies in Metro Atlanta and the North Georgia area. These partner agencies, in turn, distribute these products to individuals and families in need. Volunteers make this possible by sorting, inspecting and packing donated items for these groups. The PRC is a fun, hands-on project for groups, families, businesses, schools, and individuals.
Date: Saturday, July 26th
Time: 1:00pm-4:00pm
# of Volunteers: 40
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Volunteers must be at least eight years old. An adult must accompany volunteers under 18 years old.
- One adult chaperone is required: per 4 youths under 10; per 6 youths 10-13 yrs; per 10 youths 14-17yrs.
- We respectfully request that volunteers commit to working the entire shift.
GATS is happy to support Tamilnadu Eye Foundation for the charitable cause.
Your GATS Charity Committee is raising funds to support this noble cause.
GATS MEMBERS, PLEASE DONATE GENEROUSLY.
For additional information, kindly contact K.R Sundararaghavan or Martin J. Vincent
From TNF Eye Camp: There is a saying that we appreciate something when we do not have it anymore. How true it is when it comes to eye care. In normal day to day life we do not pay much attention to our eyes or think twice about our eye sight. But ask a person who has lost their eye sight and you will know how much it affects them. In India, where there are close to 20 million people needing eye care, the life of visually impaired is very challenging. Add to that the factors of aging, poverty and no access to the basic health care. I know personally as my grandmother developed a simple cataract in 1960s. In those days, we could not afford a trip to the big city to get her eyes operated on. We took her to the local government hospital and they did the surgery without proper treatment and she lost 80% of the eye sight in both her eyes. Being independent and head of the family since she was fifteen years old, she could not think of being dependent on somebody for her basic needs. She lost the interest in living and kept repeating that she is the burden for the earth. Her biggest gripe was that she could not see the faces of her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
This was the driving force behind us starting the Eye Camp project through TamilNadu Foundation, a 501C non-profit organization and Aravind Eye Hospital which is a leader in eye care. They are doing about 750 surgeries a day and have the highest percentage of success rate for eye surgeries. They also reach out to the villagers by going to them, screening them and taking the patients to the city, operate them and bring them back to their villages. For $2, one person gets cataract surgery. Dr. Venkatasamy, the founder of the Aravind Hospital was featured in the Heros program for social entrepreneurs on PBS - http://www.pbs.org/opb/thenewheroes/meet/green.html. With the help of Atlanta friends, we have conducted about 90 camps so far 20000 people have been screened and 5000 people have been operated on for cataract. We want to reach out to more friends, so we can help more people to gain their eyesight and independence back. Our goal is to raise at least $10000 for the project.
You can make a tax deductible contribution in any of the following ways:
$5 - one cataract surgery + meals for one patient
$10 - one patient gets intra-ocular lens.
$100 - one eye camp conducted in the village of your choice with the collaboration with local NGOs.
$200 - one eye camp in a village without any monetary help of local NGOs.
Please make you check payable to GATS and mail to: Greater Atlanta Tamil Sangam, 6050 Peachtree Parkway,Suite 240-253, Norcross, GA 30092-3336.
Dear Volunteers,
Many thanks to all of you from Greater Atlanta Tamilsangam who came Saturday afternoon to volunteer at MedShare! We had a really great time working with you all. And we got a lot of work done! I am so glad you all came out and we are excited to have you return soon!
During the Saturday sessions, we completed about 1373 pounds of first sort boxes plus syringes and 147 boxes of medical supplies! You all did a great job on everything! This is great work and everyone was so energetic and fun! These boxes will be entered into our inventory in the next couple of days, and then they’ll be immediately available for shipment to hospitals in the developing world.
If you’d like to volunteer again, we’d love to have you. I’d love to schedule another volunteer session for you if you’d like to come back as a group. We also would be very happy to see any of you in any of our normal volunteer sessions—we have them just about every Wednesday morning, Saturday morning, and Saturday afternoon, and occasionally at other times. You just have to give me a call or drop me an email if you’d like to participate in one of them.
Thanks again for your help!
Monique Murray
Volunteer Program Coordinator
MedShare International
3240 Clifton Springs Road
Decatur, GA 30034
770-323-5858 ext 205
770-323-4301 fax
www.medshare.org
Please join with your family and friends
Kids will love this experience
Greater Atlanta Taml Sangam Charity Committee has signed up for volunteering at the MedShare International on 3/29/2008 from 1.00PM to 4.00PM. MedShare International is an Atlanta-based non-profit organization dedicated to recycling surplus medical supplies and equipment for use by healthcare institutions in developing countries. GATS volunteers will help MedShare International in sorting and packing medicines and medical supplies to be sent to developing countries.
GATS members are welcome to participate in this activity. If you are interested, please contact GATS Charity or Martin J. Vincent or K.R Sundararaghavan.
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