SUDARSHANAM-NI Annual Report
April 2022 – November-2022
REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES FOR THE ABOVE DURATION
The trustees are pleased to submit the report and accounts for Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam during the period April 2022 to November 2022.
Name, address and Constitution of the charity
Charity Name: Sudarshanam NI Hindu Malayalee Samajam
Charity Number: 104670
Address: 331,Spectrum Centre, Shankill Road,BT13 3AA
Structure, Governance and Management
Sudarshanam NI Hindu Malayalee Samajam is a voluntary charity organisation formed in October 2014 whose main objective is to bridge the cultural gap between Indian and Northern Ireland Culture, thereby providing an integrated welcoming environment where communities come together to educate, spread awareness and celebrate their festivals and traditions.
Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam provides a common platform for communities to come together, comprehend, celebrate and promote the eternal truth and teachings of Indian culture. The liability of its members is limited in that every member of the organisation undertakes to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 as a monthly subscription towards the rent for weekly get-together.
Like all Organizations, Sudarshanam was also adversely impacted from April 2020 through to April 2022 due to the pandemic. We made a good comeback in April 2022 when we all decided to get together and meet at our common venue Spectrum to strengthen our relationship and restart our sessions at full strength.
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Our first restart was on 12th September 2021 at Spectrum Hall. A General body meeting was held where the following Administration members were elected for the year 2021 – 22
Trustees selected on 12th September 2021:
| Position | Member |
|---|---|
| Chairman | Shibu Sukumaran |
| Secretary | Surendran Sukumaravarma |
| Finance Coordinator | Saneesh Soman |
| Cultural Program Coordinator | Sujitha Sukhesh |
| Social Media Coordinator | Nithin Nath |
| Daily Program Coordinator | Manoj Kumar |
| Yoga & Ethics Coordinator | Umesh Vijayam |
| Youth Program Coordinator | Pushpa Srikant |
| Antrim/Ballymena Program Coordinator | Sreejith Mohandas |
The legal governance of Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam is the responsibility of the charity trustees. Trustees are appointed as required. Potential new Trustees are identified and invited to join by agreement of the existing Trustees. Trustee meetings are held during the year at which the activities, direction and finances of the organisation are discussed.
Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam registered with the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland on 11th September 2015.
Introduction:
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Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam NI is a charity organisation working towards promoting Hindu culture among Indian Malayalee communities and promoting cultural relationships and exchanges between various communities in Belfast. We are proud that we were able to organise/celebrate the events which showcased the tradition and culture of the Malayalee Hindu community.
Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam is non-denominational. We have a child protection policy and anyone working with the children goes through Access NI checks.
Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam has a Vulnerable Person Safeguarding Policy. The trustees wish to record their gratitude and appreciation to the elders, core serve team, childrens’ teams and all the others who serve the organisation in various capacities and without whom the organisation could not function.
Objectives and Activities of the Charity:
The main purpose of the Sudarshanam Hindu Samajam is to preserve & extend the knowledge of Hindu Culture, especially among the Kerala Hindu community in Northern Ireland. This is not restricted to the Indian population and is disseminated to the local community as well. Our focus is to sustain the Kerala Hindu Culture and pass the goodness to the next generation.
Activities – April 2022 to November 2022
| 2022 Event Calendar | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Festival | Venue | Sound & Light Hire |
Food |
| 16th April 2022 | Vishu-2022 | Lisburn Church Hall | Baiju | Internal |
| 2nd May 2022 | Belfast Marathon-2022 |
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| 26th June 2022 | Sports Day -2022 | Dunmurry Grounds | Internal | Internal |
| 11th September | Onam-2022 | St.Brides Church Hall | Babu | Internal |
| 26th-4th Oct | Navarathri -2022 | Member's Homes | Internal | |
| 23rd Oct | Diwali 2022 | Antrim church hall | Baiju | Internal |
Diwali Celebrations
Date: 7[th] November 2021
Venue: Antrim St.Joseph's Church Hall
Diwali is one of the major Indian festivals we celebrate since 2016. There was a great level of enthusiasm among all the members and the festival was celebrated with a high level of energy, particularly because this was the first festival we celebrated together after the comeback from the pandemic. It was a fun-filled event with various programs by Children & Adults and mouth-watering
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food straight from the kitchen of our members. Fireworks marked the culmination of Diwali at Antrim
church hall.
Vishu Celebrations
Date: 16[th] April 2022
Venue: St.Patrick’s Church Hall, Lisburn.
Vishu, the Malayalam new year, is a traditional Hindu festival in Kerala. The festival follows the solar cycle of lunisolar as the first day of the month called Medam. It was a great opportunity for the adults to celebrate the festival in a traditional fashion while the young members had a great chance to observe and learn the rich traditions of the festival.
There were variety of programs from children and adults. The main program attraction was Dashavatharam Play starring all our children that depicted the epic story of Bhagavata Purana. Sumptuous traditional Sudarshanam Sadya cooked at our own kitchen is the Signature for all our festivities and we always receive encouraging feedback from our guests.
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2nd May 2022 – Belfast Marathon:
We formed 5 Relay teams from 23 members and raised £555 for the British Red Cross which was officially handed over to BRC on our sports day. An event always to cherish and this is our 5th Year of participation; thanks to all our members who took effort and raised funds through every possible source.
Our fond memories are with Krishnan Subramanian (Ravi), our ardent well-wisher who was always an active forerunner in our Marathon team for the last 2 years. He suddenly passed away on 10th June. As a tribute to our best friend Ravi, we decided to have our 2023 Marathon relay team names starting with R,A,V,I ; we are yet to decide on our Beneficiary for 2023 Marathon.
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26th June 2022 Sudarshanam Sports Day and Charity donation was a Great success when all the Youth
- & Adults team participated in various events conducted at Dunmurry grounds
We donated £555 collected from the Belfast Marathon to the British Red Cross intended to support Ukrainian refugees. Ann Marie from the British Red Cross collected the donation on behalf of BRC, Belfast centre. She felicitated the participants and distributed prizes to all our Superstars who had their best day out on a warm May Summer Day.
Onam Celebrations
Date: 10[th] September 2022
Venue -St.Brides’Church Hall
Onam is the biggest festival in Kerala. Sudarshanam celebrated Onam in its traditional way with floral decorations, various cultural programmes and a traditional feast. It was another great opportunity for Sudarshanam to showcase the rich traditions and a great day for all those who participated in the event.
Major highlight of this year’s Onam program was well planned, organized and rehearsed Thiruvathirakali choreographed and performed by all Ladies. It was indeed a colourful treat to watch. Kudos to all amazing girls who made it a great event.
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26th Sep to 4th October 2022 – Navarathri Celebrations -
It’s been a great idea from our Ladies group to organise Bhajan & Pooja on all 9 days of Navarathri at various houses volunteered by our members. This auspicious occasion of showering knowledge to all our families especially children was launched for the first time last year and it was a grand success. To continue that momentum, we carried on this tradition this year as well. All 9 days we had Bhajana & Pooja at different houses. Apart from the spiritual vibe it created a special unity, happiness and satisfaction for all of the attendees. We would like to continue this as part of our annual events calendar and would encourage all new family members to come forward and take part from next year.
Diwali Celebrations
Date: 23rd October 2022
Venue: Antrim St. Joseph’s Church Hall
Diwali is one of the major Indian festivals we have been celebrating without fail since 2016. This year we had another colourful celebration at Antrim church hall on 23rd October.
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Regular Sunday Sessions
Regular Sunday sessions continued as usual at the Spectrum Centre.
As most of our members planned their holidays in the summer months, we did not book any hall for our weekly activities/get together during that period.
Sunday sessions continued in the usual pattern without much changes. Yoga continued without much interruption.
Purna Vidya Classes still could not pick up the momentum due to various factors and we are working hard to revive it to the original state
As part of restructuring Purna Vidya, we have arranged “Train the Teachers “program which is going on in full strength; Thanks to our Purna Vidya Teacher from England, Vasumati ji who had shown Great interest in sharing her wisdom to our teachers.
Our Admin team under Shibu’s leadership had regular Virtual meetings to coordinate various activities, Sunday sessions and Food rota. Our Sincere gratitude to all Admin team members.
Our sincere gratitude are also with Spectrum Centre and Mary Magdalene Church management for providing their continued support to facilitate our activities.
Special mention to our Finance coordinator, Saneesh Soman for all his efforts in systematically looking
after the accounts, tracking the subscriptions, paying off expenses and coordinating all banking activities.
Our Big Shout out to all our Admin team members especially Sujita Nair in spite of her personal & official commitments was instrumental in coordinating various cultural activities. We had our monthly planning meeting that helped us in sharing bright ideas and keeping the momentum going
in our journey throughout the year.
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Public benefit
Our main Beneficiary this year was the British Red Cross for whom we donated £555 for their Refugee Support program collected through Belfast Marathon Run.
Outcomes:
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Maintaining Hindu Culture among our community by creating awareness of our festivals and significance of various rituals.
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By involving local groups, it always helps in reducing hate crime, racism and prejudice thereby creating a sense of togetherness in contributing towards a shared community.
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Encouraging cultural integration and bridging gap within our Local communities
Membership growth:
While we recognize the contribution of all our beloved family members, without which we are not where we are now, we would like to mention the organic growth of Sudarshanam during pre and post pandemic times.
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Our original membership count was 19 till Jan 2018.
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More families started joining from 2018 when we introduced an online membership form for ease of management and tracking.
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8 families joined during the period 2018-20. Unexpectedly we were also impacted due to pandemic where we had around 18 months break and all our activities were forced to cease from March 2020-September 2021
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Major influx started from around July 2021 when many interested families joined as a respite to come out from the lock down fever.
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38 new families joined from July 2021 till date.
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6 families left during this period for personal reasons.
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There are 59 Family members as on date.
As we have grown exponentially, it’s essential that we strengthen our relationship, know each other better, including strengths and weaknesses, help each other, share knowledge and ideas so that we all stand unite in all our activities and initiatives.
Members joined Pre-2018 19 Members Joined from 2018-2020 8 Members joined since June 2021 38 Members Left 6 Existing count 59
Achievements
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We were able to revive our regular Sudarshanam sessions after an 18 months pandemic break in the best way possible.
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As part of restructuring Purna Vidya, we have arranged “Train the Teachers “program which is going on in full strength; Thanks to Our Purna Vidya Teacher from England, Vasumati Ji who had shown Great interest in sharing her wisdom to our Teachers and Sreejesh Nair for coordinating the teaching session.
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Chenda training team started in October 2022 to encourage our youth and adults to learn & practise our traditional Kerala drums.
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- Participated in Belfast Marathon Team Relay and raised funds for the British Red Cross Ukraniain Refugee support in Belfast.
Challenges
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Motivating our new members to attend the regular Sunday Sessions.
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Continuity of Purna Vidya classes and keeping the momentum. We need to restart the classes in a regular fashion for our Children to be aware of our cultural heritage.
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Collecting pending subscription dues.
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Venue for Sunday Sessions or for celebrating event due to absence of Permanent Office or availability of venues when we need it.
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Not enough storage space
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Sudarshanam Inventory tracking
Income and expenditure
Sudarshanam holds no assets nor has any liabilities to any other parties.
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Net Income from April 2022 to November 2022: £6589
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Net Expenses : £6544
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Net Mar gin: £45
Major expenditure was for Sunday Sessions Room rent, purchasing cutleries etc
Remaining expenditure was in respect of organising and purchasing items for
various cultural activities, gifts for Children ,Annual Event Insurance,Purna Vidya
Teachers training and other administrative expenses
Income against expenditure
There was an operating profit of £45
Balance summary as at the end of the November 2022:
Balance carried forward to 2023: £4153
| Account Summary from April to November 2022 | Account Summary from April to November 2022 | Account Summary from April to November 2022 | Account Summary from April to November 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expenses | ££ | Income | ££ |
| Vishu-2022 | 587 | Carried Forward | 4108 |
| Marathon 2022 | 1011 | MonthlySubscription | 5578 |
| Sports Day-2022 | 1002 | Miscellaneous | 1011 |
| Onam-2022 | 755 | ||
| Diwali-2022 | 461 | ||
| Miscellaneous | 2728 | ||
| Net Expenses | 6544 | Net Income | 6589 |
| Balance Carried forward to nextyear | 45 | ||
| Balance frompreviousyear | 4108 | ||
| Net Amount Carried forward to 2023 | 4153 |
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Conclusion
Sudarshanam team is grateful to all its members for their hard work and dedication to keep Sudarshanam activities going without any breaks. Efforts have been made to address the points that members have raised during the general meetings. We are grateful to our cultural program coordination team led by Sujita Nair for successfully organizing cultural activities involving all our young children that showcased our Values and traditions. We are looking forward to the coming years for strengthening our relationship within our families and to create an atmosphere that helps younger generation benefits more from our existence. Also, we should all strive hard to make a more profound and positive impact to the community by contributing more that can benefit next generation.
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