June 2006 Monthly Newsletter - New Madurai Foundation

Dear all,
It is been quite a while, since we have published our newsletter, which explains quite a bit about our status and what we are planning to do!

Management Words:
As you all know, we started off nicely in the beginning of the year by - (i) Registration of New Madurai Foundation legally (ii) Proceeding on "Helping Akshaya" project (iii) Launch of the first free library in South Madurai. This newsletter will explain about the status and the plan going forward.

We are very glad to share some of the updates happenning as of now. For the past two or three months, there was not much interaction on the group as such!

We have decided to expedite our activities in a gradual manner on New Madurai Foundation projects. This won't be a drastic shift, but it would be gradual. We are going to call for more help from you. More and more people need to come forward, then only we can achieve what we want to do! It is definitely not a single man's work. Everybody need to come forward for helping us complete our projects. We have only two projects currently, so it is definitely easier for us to achieve the target.

Current Community Strength:
A good thing about New Madurai Group is - currently the strength is 134! This strength was gained in a time span of around 1 year, including some silence among the group for quite a while. This is in fact, without much campaign efforts.

There are some MSW(Masters in Social Work - in American College) students also joining the team. We would be glad if they step up to help us in what we are doing. We will do all kinds of help, if they step up to help in any of the projects.

Marketing and New Networking Updates:
We have not done enough marketing, but there are new networking contacts coming up by themselves.
(i) Mr.Bruno Winck and Ms.Sylvie Winck from US/France were interested in our library and they wanted to give some help. Mr.Winck came down to New Madurai Foundation and evaluated our library to update Ms.Sylvie, who is a Librarian and she had built libraries in many places from different parts of the world. Mr. Winck gave a huge list of comments, but we have not got back to them yet. We will get back to them and work together as soon as possible, I guess.

(ii) Mrs.Ibrahim from US wanted to help us in someway, but she is still understanding on what we are doing.

Project Updates:
First Free Library Project Updates:
We have the library running and there are few visitors coming and using the facility. But it is definitely not going great, because of the poor marketing. This is because of lack of funds and lack of resources to proceed. If anyone would like to come forward for spending time on spreading the news, that would be highly appreciated.

"Helping Akshaya" Project Updates:
We were on target for collection of Rs.2500 and handing it over to Akshaya Krishnan! But we were not able to meet the target for 3 months or so! We are going to make it a point from now on to get Rs.2500 collected! Any help on this will be appreciated!

Need Resouces for:
(i) Madan lal, who is already a New Madurai Member is working on (campaign and proposal) documentation.
(ii) Need some one from Madurai - who will get a cheque from our New Madurai Foundation, Alagappan Nagar to Akshaya Krishnan, Doak Nagar in Madurai. And then get the receipt and hand over it to New Madurai Foundation. Please contact us, if you can help us!?
(iii) Need everyone to spread the news.
(iv) Our important project officer had to proceed with some other activites and wanted to break for sometime. This is a planned break and he will definitely come back sometime, after he settles down. This is a big loss for us!

Miscellaneous "Madurai Times" Blogging:
We are currently blogging about Madurai in Madurai Times Blog Publication. You can check out the articles, which are mostly about Madurai, any general help and improvements or anything related to Madurai.

If you think you want to help us?
Basic thing you could do is spread the news of New Madurai Foundation to your friend networks.
If you want to do more help than that - then please send a mail on your interest to newmadurai@gmail.com, so that management can help you in providing some help to us in any of the projects. Please note that - it does not have to be monetary. It could be just plain efforts only!!

If you have any questions or comments on this newsletter - you can email me at sselvan@gmail.com.

thank you
Managing Trustee,
New Madurai Foundation.