Dr. Devashish Ray, MD
Namaskar to all my brothers and sisters.
Since our first edition, so many exciting things have happened to make our growing and vibrant group feel proud about.
MOU-we had our “Memorandum Of Understanding” with OSA signed on Feb 21st 2020. This is a milestone achieved by our group. I congratulate all members and personally thank team OSA and its executive Board for welcoming us with open arms.
Currently, the world is witnessing a grim and catastrophic event engulfing mankind. COVID 19 and the pandemic is creating havoc and challenging our existence not seen in centuries. When large number of people all over the world are swept away by this fatal attack, including our near and dear ones, we are desperately trying to fight it out with all uncertainty but with steely resolve.
OSA-HWG members are all frontline professionals, daring their life to serve and care for the fallen souls. I and my family can’t thank you all enough and bow my head in reverence for your selfless service.
OSA-HWG also decided to take up the project of doing more for the society by bringing more self-awareness to calm the panic and anxiety raging the community. With OSA as our partner, we conducted a series of 3 international conferences, which was widely attended and greatly appreciated by our community and was a trend setter with many OSA State Chapters following through.
1st: COVID 19 AWARENESS on March 15th, 2020 was a grand success, the topics presented by the wonderful presenters of our team with question and answers , was a blessing for our community as it calmed the nerves/curiosity to some extent. The stress and anxiety in the following days, prompted us to come up with another update on the COVID 19. The recording can be accessed at here.
2nd: COVID 19 APOCALYPSE on March 29th, 2020, You-tube live with more than 824 views - The video can be accessed here.
As COVID 19 was rapidly spreading its footprint across USA with dizzying numbers, this timely intervention by our super talented presenters with interactive session, proved once again that OSA-HWG will not hesitate to rise to the occasion and serve our community. My heartfelt thanks to all participants and the whole team. Gradually over the weeks and months, as the rage of COVID 19 seems to persist with some flickering, the community and the families bore the brunt of quarantine and lockdown. The society evinced some very unusual / unexpected social rumbling, frustration, and hopelessness due to restricted mobility, access to social gathering,24/7 information overloaded with deaths, hospitalizations and no definite cure yet. This prompted OSA-HWG to bear the responsibility of planning something unheard of and unexplored -an event to ‘De-stress’ our community with a Total health/holistic concept.
3rd’: “Global Odia, Stay united, Stand strong” You-tube live with more than 1300 views- The video can be accessed here.
This whole event was planned, coordinated, and executed within 2 weeks. This was dedicated to all our fallen heroes of COVID 19 and the quarantined families going through the stress This was a virtual extravaganza and visual delight for the whole international Odia community. The event was a total package of Holistic health care approach to help the community de-stress and enjoy. The event had participants who are celebrities in India and USA with millions in their fan club. The event had motivational speech by the Honorable Governor of Odisha, Inspirational and patriotic songs by team OSA and OSA-HWG, mellifluous renditions by Odia /Bollywood singers, Zumba dance work out, Yoga/meditation session, hilarious comedy ,comedic acts by Odia movie superstars, dance by award winning Odia actress and nutrition session. The whole event witnessed a cohesive international team working passionately and volunteering their time and acts for the community. This whole event was enjoyed by our Odia community in North America, Odisha, and India unquestionably with hundreds of feedback and chat room buzzing. I thank immensely the whole international team for this mission accomplished.
Coming to our ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, we have had our general body meetings and frequent working committee meetings. The team have been working to create a website for OSA-HWG with the latest technology and is in the making by the off shore team .This will give us a platform for our group , activities planned and executed, discussion forums and many more exciting things .The team has also decided to change the free membership to paid membership, so as to sustain the group and its myriad social activities to propel our mission forward. There are some very interesting projects under consideration and logistics are being worked out and will be announced timely.
This is a very exciting time for our group. As we expand/ grow in numbers and activities, here and in Odisha we would be glad to have more members involved and take it to the next level. Let’s build our team “strong and dynamic” to serve our community through our noble mission and be the pride of the “WORLD ODIA COMMUNITY”.
Stay Safe and stay well.
Thanks much
Dev
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