Happy New Year!!

Dear Friends,

Namaste and Happy New Year! Hope you're enjoying the new year and excited to start new projects. So are we, here at Adhikaar. We've had a really good year, and we would like to take this opportunity to reflect, share our achievements with you, and thank YOU for making Adhikaar successful.

As many of you already know, we were able to work with over 500 individuals last year through our health fairs, workshops, classes, and other programs, and thousands more through our website and newsletters.

We had some changes within our team. Rajani became the Board Chair, and I changed my position from President to Executive Director. Rinku joined as a summer volunteer, and stayed on as a Program Coordinator. Shanti left her position as an Outreach Worker after 15 months, but continues to be a supporter. And we have hired Narbada Chhetri as a new outreach worker/community organizer, to work along with Satendra Shah who has been with Adhikaar since 2006.

Our team has won numerous awards and recognitions, including the New York Women's Foundation's Helen LaKelly Hunt Neighborhood Leadership Award (Luna), Community Leadership Award from Ridgewood Nepalese Society (Adhikaar), Annapurna Deo Activism Award (Misty), Hope for Women Award (Narbada), and most recently Rinku as selected as a Junior Fellow at the United Way of New York City's Nonprofit Leadership Program. Adhikaar was also selected for a grant from the NorthStar Fund.

Our work would not have been possible without YOU -- our board members, outreach workers, advisers, volunteers, donors, allies, consultants, and supporters. Many of you have spent weekends and evenings helping us set up, break down, plan events, and run errands. Some of you have given us even more. A special shout out to: Rinku Bastola, who has been staffing our office every day since August; Shweta Parmar, who helped us organize our bookkeeping for the very first time; and Celeste Frye of The Public Good, who is currently helping us with financial and management planning. Also, a big thank you to the Worldly SoundClash folks -- Dr. Das, Ramjac, Sukhawat Ali Khan, and Janaka Selekta for being great musicians and amazing people. And thank you to Amisha Khemani for working with us under tight deadline and multiple changes and producing a beautiful poster that you saw in your emails and around town. I have to acknowledge one more person -- he has volunteered with Adhikaar since its inception, attended (almost) every Adhikaar event, and solved all of Adhikaar's big and small technology crises -- my partner, Rushil Shakya.

We have also received many small and large individual financial contributions, as well as in-kind donations. We thank all of you for your generosity, and look forward to another year of partnership.

We are excited about the upcoming year. We are:
--starting English for Action and Empowerment classes again in January.
--organizing First Women's Health Fair on February 10th, with another planned for March and Men's Health Fair planned for June
--creating a health manual that we can share with everyone.
--starting a new youth creative workshop in January
--organizing workshops on taxation and workers' rights and other issues
--organizing a monthly "Chautari" to catch up with friends, meet new people, and discuss issues that are important to our community
--working with other organizations to create a municipal ID for everyone, and continuing to work for drivers' license
--and we're planning some fun fundraising events (save the date for a dance party on Jan 19th -- details to follow soon!)

Please come visit us. Volunteer with us if you would like to share your time and expertise. Please send us an email if you are interested.

If you were planning to make a year-end contribution, but missed the opportunity, it's not too early to start for the new year!! The donation button is right on our website: www.adhikaar.org or you can mail us a check payable to Adhikaar to our new address: 39-06 62nd Street, #BL, Woodside, NY 11377.

You can also help raise money for Adhikaar by just surfing the internet by using GoodSearch.com and typing Adhikaar under "Who do you goodsearch for?". Last year we earned $32. Every little bit helps!

Thank you! And Happy New Year!
Luna, on behalf of the Adhikaar Team