Newsletter for June

Hello Everyone,

Hopefully this will be a short update for all of you since we met in late May.

Thanks to Ameeta and Jyoti, we met in Ridgewood in the Arya Samaj on the 5th of June and presented the goals, services and vision of AWAKE.

The feedback was positive. We picked up 2 members from their youth group. Hopefully we will have some sessions with teenagers.

On the same day, we were written up in the Rockland Journal News. The subject was Healthy Relationships, a new program being spear headed by Nomita. Good Press!!! Thanks to Nita and her daughter Vani, we have a website, awakealliance.org.

Jaslin and I attended a training session “Batterer as Parent”. The workshop was presented by Lundy Bancroft, a noted author and an authority in the field. We bought a few books on the subject, if anyone is interested in learning about related topics, please e-mail me before the next meeting.

Tomorrow, I will be going to the Swami Narayan Temple in Yonkers, hopefully with Sharad to speak to the big guns first and see if we can make a presentation to their attendees!!

That brings us to the next meeting: We have arranged for a speaker to present some info for 20 to 25 minutes. Speaker for this meeting will be Carolyn Fish, Executive Director of Rockland Family Shelter Date: July 24th Time:11:30 a.m. Venue: Peking Duck in Closter, or wherever Mala makes the booking. We will keep you informed.

Those of you who are interested in Fundraising and event planning please contact your committee chairs i.e Mala, Ruku or Kiran. We need to begin work on getting donations and ads for our journal. The committee has the price for ads.

People interested in Domestic Violence work should contact Jaslin. We need chairwomen for the Membership committee from Bergen, Rockland and Westchester counties. This committee is chaired by Madhu. Any volunteers?

The September meeting will be held in Westchester. I am trying to get a lawyer to speak at this meeting. He has helped some of our clients and has also authored a book on women in DV situations.

We are in need of a Public Relations expert who can help us present our program to the community. Any members who work in PR or any spouses who can help us?

Our Annual Fundraiser is scheduled for the 16th of October at Shaan Restaurant in Manhattan. Each one of us needs to start working on our friends and family to attend. The ticket is $85.00. We promise you a sumptuous meal and enlightening entertainment.

I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your enthusiasm, your commitment and your time. If you wish to contact me, you can e-mail me or call me on my cell phone, 914-220-2904.

Thanks to those of you who responded to my appeal for funds to help a client who was thrown out of her parents-in-laws' home. She has an 8 year old son and a 6 year old daughter.

A reminder to all of us: The membership fee has been set at $25.00. Those of you who have paid, Thanks.

And those of you who have not, please send your checks addressed to:

A.W.A.K.E.
130 North Main Street
New City, New York 10956