California Suvidha NGO holds 5K run &10K walk to help Telugu farmers

Sacramento: California registered Non-Profit Organisation (NGO), Suvidha International Foundation successfully organized a 5K run and 10K walk on April 23rd in California State Capital City, Sacramento. Overseas Volunteers For A Better India (OVBI) partnered with Suvidha on organising the event.

Indian American school kids, adults, and seniors from the Sacramento area and people with different ethnicities took part in the event that had great fun walking or running with over 200 others. Suvidha's representative, Bhaskar Vempati flagged off the the run at 8:30 AM with over 200 participants.

Speaking on the occasion, Vempati said that event proceeds benefit water and organic farming projects in India. He also said that Suvidha aims to improve the quality of life and economic wellbeing of rural communities by creating self-sustainable, model villages in the Telugu States and organising 5K/10K run/walk to support the service projects in the Telugu States.

Vempati, with support from the partners, Suvidha International Foundation is going to raise a cumulative million dollars ( 2.5% of project funds) over three year period: 2022-2024 to help five million farmer families with a comprehensive river rejuvenation water and organic farming projects in the Telugu States and Karnataka. Many participants and supporters of the 5K Walk and 10K Run appreciated Suvidha's event and requested Suvidha to organise several similar events in the Greater Sacramento, California area to support the cause.

Chief Guest of the event YK Chalam, Folsom City Council Member, Shankar Pathi from Real Estate Source Inc, and other distinguished guests have presented trophies to the winners of the run/walk.

The distinguished guests of this event include Raghav Chivukula, Nag Dondapati, Shyam Arabindi, Manohar Mandadi, Satyaveer, Srinivas Eerpina, Jithendra Byni, and Venkat Nagam from the Telugu Association of Greater Sacramento, Sekhar Tiwari, Gobi Ramaswamy from Indian Association of Sacramento, Vishali Bhaskaran from Avvai Tamil School, Gita Chedalla ,Art of Living in Sacramento, Sateesh Moola – Sacramento Telangana Association, Kala Kowtha Volunteer, Paresh Sinha, Avinash Maddy, and Padmapriya Maddy - Suvidha Board members.

Several youth and volunteers have helped instrumentally conduct Suvidha's 5K Run/10K Walk, including Adharsh Senthilkumar, Pawni Tiwari, Pranathi Sakhamuri, Sriram Vempati and local California State University - Sacramento campus graduate students including Ashok Bolepally, Likith Muthavarapu, Prudhvi Medapati, and Kavipranesh Venkataramani. Suvidha empowers the villages in both Telugu States by educating children, providing leadership and vocational training for youth and women, instilling holistic health through yoga, meditation, and other healthy practices, creating awareness on health and hygiene, providing organic farming training to farmers, and implementing water conservation projects.

Suvidha coordinates with local government officers and elected leaders, and volunteer organisations in implementing the above-mentioned developmental activities.

With the help of state and central governments in India, Suvidha also takes up their village developmental initiatives and executes them. Suvidha is on a mission to raise a million dollars to convert 500 plus villages from water poverty into water plenty over the next 3 years including 2022.

These water projects help over 5 million farmers. With the help of Back to the Roots, several developmental activities were implemented in the adopted village, Astanagurthy in Telangana.

Vempati thanked the event sponsors, Shankar Pathi - Realtor, Reliance SuperMart, Ram Busam, TechNet, Avatar IT Solutions, Grand Parottas Restaurant, Key Business Solutions Inc, OVBI, Cold Stone, Mumbaiker Restaurant, Telugu Association of Greater Sacramento, Bakery Bites, Best Western, DoubleTree at Hilton, and SiliconAndhra Manabadi. Bhaskar thanked youth volunteers Namish Dondapati and Rohan Chivukula for leading warmups before the run/walk.

Bhaskar also thanked all the volunteers who helped Suvidha in organizing the event and thanked all sponsors for supporting the event. A list of works that have already been completed by Suvidha and other works that are in progress can be looked at http://suvidhainternational.org/progress.

Several pictures of completed beneficiaries and service projects are included in the above weblink.