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support volunteer

Aram Sei is supporting “Father Frank’s Kids” this year.

Father Frank’s Kids supports a network of Nuestros

Pequeños Hermanos (NPH, Spanish for “Our Little

Brothers and Sisters”) homes located in the countries

of Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

The boys and girls in these homes are orphaned,

abandoned or disadvantaged. Many have suffered

physical and/or verbal abuse, have lived in horrible

conditions, and have been shuffled from one family

member to another. Like all children, they are seeking

love and security, a place they can call home. They

are referred to NPH by family members, neighbors or

government agencies.At NPH, they strive to create a

loving and safe family environment for these vulnerable

children living in extreme conditions.

The project that Aram Sei is specifi cally focusing on

will help the NPH Honduras chapter.

FATHER FRANK’S KIDS

new project announcement —

Many of your shows have been fundraisers. Can you share

your thoughts on charity, and what made you choose Aram Sei

this time?

Most of my concerts have been fundraisers for many worthy

causes. We live a very comfortable life and we need to give

back to the society. I wanted to teach the concept of giving to

my students by involving them in the school shows that would be

fundraisers.

I was introduced to Aram Sei through their signature event,

Spark. I was the judge for the music segment and was impressed

by their vision to support grassroot charities in the fi eld of

education. Their support for promoting education through the

Payir and Snehadhara projects aligns with my passion for

teaching. I want to support Aram Sei in a small way for the great

work that they are doing.

— continued intervie w with smt. anur adha sridhar

e n d o f i n t e r v i e w

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Aram Sei volunteers

with Guru Smt Anuradha

Sridhar

O C T O B E R 2 017 N E W S L E T T E R

REACHINGOUT

my aram sei journey

karen kagooFounder, aram sei

It gives me great happiness to share with you my Aram

Sei journey so far. My name is Karen and I am one of the

founding members of Aram Sei. We started Aram Sei

when my son was a 1 month old.

I see the progression and growth of Aram Sei in parallel

to that of my son. I remember at our fi rst meeting Advay

was an infant in a sea of passionate volunteers united by

a common cause as we brain stormed the name for what

is now Aram Sei.

Soon our passion found a united voice and we started

hosting events around the Bay Area starting with

contests for students in school.

Be it eating on the go or napping as we wrapped an

event Advay has been an intimate part of the journey

just as much as Aram Sei is intertwined in our day to day

life. In between we moved to France so I could pursue an

MBA with the added benefi t of increased marketing skills

for my job as marketing lead of Aram Sei. Little did we

know that we would have two marketeers in the family!

Last month my professional life also intersected

with Aram Sei when I had an opportunity to bring 17

Googlers to Fischer Middle School in San Jose. We

led the students through an introduction to Computer

Science (www.cs-fi rst.com), Google Apps and a fun

journey of discovery through Google Expeditions

(3D viewer using Google cardboard).

Today as I look back on 5 years of Aram

Sei and Advay I realize the journey of self

discovery as parent and non-profi t founder is

very alike. Through Aram Sei I have learnt

the act of paying it forward and through my

son’s eyes I learn every day that true giving

begins at home.

Be it a 5K or a Fitness Social Advay is out there

ready to move with the volunteers.

What we’ve been up to:

SANHITI’S THERUKOOTHU 2017

aram sei’s fitness social

Upcoming: Thyagaraja, the evolution of a musician saint

#googleserver2017

anika’s arangetram fundraiser

This April, Aram Sei benefi tted from Sanhiti’s “Therukoothu”.

Sanhiti has been one of our partners over the years and

have always backed Aram Sei’s vision to support grassroot

charities worldwide. “Therukoothu” was a grand success

with three houseful shows, which were performed in

Woodside, CA, on April 8th and 9th, 2017.

Aram Sei organized a free fi tness social for its volunteers,

well-wishers and donors. We partnered with Worldanz and

Bombay Jam to present a 2 hour show that was attended by

over 50 participants.

This unique event is based on a children’s movie about the

historical musical saint, will have a live, beautiful multimedia

presentation in English on the life and work of the Saint

Thyagaraja. His soulful compositions will be presented live by the

students of Trinity Center for Music, disciples of Smt. Anuradha

Sridhar, on October 28th, 2017.

In July, Aram Sei provided a platform for Google volunteers as part

of #GoogleServe2017 to meet and shape young minds of Clyde L.

Fischer Middle , San Jose.

The enthusiastic students were led through career sessions on

Google Apps, CS-First(https://www.cs-fi rst.com) and experienced

immersive experiences via Google Cardboard. Many thanks to

all the Googlers who participated in this session and answered

questions from the students on careers at Google in addition to

leading them through the sessions above.

Anika Kanchi, a sophomore at the Lynbrook High School in San

Jose had her arangetram on Oct 7th 2017. She has been learning

bharatanatyam from Guru Smt Mythili Kumar for the last 10 years.

Anika was moved by Aram Sei’s pitch for the Payir project at

Sanhiti’s “Therukoothu” and decided to use her arangetram as an

opportunity to fundraise for Aram Sei! She requested the guests

at her arangetram to donate to Aram Sei instead of getting gifts for

her. What a noble gesture!

Here is her short message to other kids - “We are so privileged

that we don’t realize that there are many children who go through

difficulties in day-to-day lives. We are the next generation. We need

to step up and do our bit to make the world a better place.”

interview with smt. anuradha sridhar

continued ne x t page —

[FROM PREVIOUS ISSUE ] One of the charities that Aram Sei is supporting this

year is the Snehadhara Foundation. The foundation helps differently-abled

children and adults from various backgrounds using Arts Based Therapy to

address life goals. Aram Sei helped in subsidizing funds for Snehadara’s

“Uhuru” program earlier this year, and their director got back to us...

Dear Kaushik,

“There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark.” Helen Keller.

Life is fi lled with diversity, and though we appreciate the diversities that create the vibrancy of life, yet at a practical and gut level we seem to reject anything that makes us distinct from each other. The words ‘disabled’ vs ‘normal’ further this division. Our inability to see society as interdependent, to see it as just a part and not as a whole, has given rise to exclusion. Our effort this year has been to take the mainstream world and build inclusion into it.

Snehadhara was set up with the vision of “sustainable community living” for children and their families. All that we do at Snehadhara stems from this sense of community that we wish to co-create. This being the core of what we do, since its inception we have never placed affordability as a criterion for admission. This has allowed us to take children from varied backgrounds. Each year we have shared the working cost of the program with the parents and allowed them to choose how much they can pay. The idea of this is clearly to create a community where we are there for each other, be it fi nancially, emotionally or socially.

It is often said that in our lifetime, even if we are able to change one person’s life in a positive manner, we have done incredibly well to say the least. And you, by supporting us, have helped change not 1 but 35 lives directly and many more the count of which I don’t think we will ever know.

12 children availed a subsidy this year at the centre. On behalf of the children and their families I wish to Thank Aram Sei for supporting us this year. The amount received from you has helped us meet the gap between what other parents and donors pay.

This would have not been possible had you not extended your support.

Thank you for joining hands with us as we work towards creating an inclusive world, a world where we are able to re-look at ourselves and are inspired to live differently and compassionately, a world where everyone belongs. I would like to sincerely thank you for partnering and shouldering the responsibility in undertaking this journey with us. We look forward to staying connected with you and seek your support for the years to come.

Warm Regards,Gitanjali SaranganEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF SNEHADHARA

Anuradha Sridhar is the daughter and disciple of the violin

maestro Lalgudi Srimathi Brahmanandam, the reputed

sister and violin duo partner of violin virtuoso Lalgudi G.

Jayaraman. She has performed in several concerts around

the world. She started the Trinity Center for Music in 1989

in California that has produced top tier artists for the past

two decades. We caught up with Guru Anuradha and here

are some excerpts -

We’ve heard that the Thyagaraja concert is a grand

visual and aural feast. Can you please elaborate?

We have animated the life and work of Saint Thyagaraja.

There is a story line that describes how Thyagaraja’s

works can be applied in our everydays lives . My students

and I will be performing the carnatic music that will fl ow

seamlessly with the animated feature fi lm.

You have combined story telling, animation and live

music in a single show. How did you conceptualize

this?

My son was fascinated by the nursery rhymes playing

on a CD-ROM. This gave me an idea to create an

animated feature to introduce carnatic music to children.

Thyagaraja’s compositions are very descriptive with

rich content and lyrics. And the best way to learn the

song was to visualize it! We have animated Thyagaraja’s

compositions and the important incidents in his life. I am

very happy to present a show for Aram Sei in San Jose.

A show of this nature must involve a lot of hard work

from you, your students and their parents. Isn’t it?

Yes, indeed. We are very passionate about music and

we don’t count hours during practice sessions. I have

been very lucky to have a dedicated group of students

who take music seriously. This is the fi rst time I will be

presenting the show with along with my students and I am

very excited about it.

a SPECIAL let ter from snehadara’s director

u p d at e s f r o m A p r i l 2 0 1 7 ’ s i s s u e o f r e a c h i n g o u t