Vibha Springfest: Festive Dancing For A Cause
Vibha Springfest: Festive Dancing For A Cause
The music was splendid, the dancing rhythmic, the attires lavish, and the atmosphere joyous at the Vibha Springfest ? an annual jamboree of traditional Indian Dandia and Bhangra festive dancing! The 300 guests who came together on a magnificent spring evening at Sardar Bhavan on April 24 danced the night away, and they also helped raise money to support the cause of underprivileged children in India. As usual, the volunteers of Vibha put together another well-executed event! The event was sponsored by Maharaja Restaurant.
The Dandia featured Sur-Sangam, which was back by popular demand ? thanks to their adaptive musical renditions combining popular film songs with the traditions of raas and garba. The Bhangra featured some fine disc spinning by DJ Ashu and a well-choreographed dance performance led by Kiran Bindra, founder of the Bhangra Elite dance troupe.
Every dollar raised from this event benefit projects in India such as the Sarada Kalyan Bhandar (SKB), a public charitable trust organized by women is rendering service to the women, youth, and children of rural India in the field of education, nutrition, health and environment. The Child Welfare Project provides remedial coaching to around 500 extremely poor children. The children are provided with food, clothes, music, yoga and health care. SKB uplifts the standard of rural children through education, nutrition and health care.
Another project supported by Vibha called Asmaan works with a community living on the streets near Kamathipura, the oldest red-light area of Mumbai. School admission for children, Balwadi, support (remedial), and non-formal education classes, sponsorship for education, vocational training, daily meals, and regular health checkups are some of the activities being undertaken by the project. The mission of the project is, "To bring awareness in the community about the basic rights of children (especially girls), and women".
These two projects combined will help approximately 550 children at an annual cost of about fifteen thousand dollars.
Rupa Balasubramanian, a Vibha volunteer and coordinator for the event said, "It is remarkable to see how a group of young professionals come together to execute Vibha events time-after-time. Springfest is extra special for me because it engages the younger generation in the Atlanta community and brings them together for a fun-filled evening and helps them appreciate some of the challenges faced by underprivileged children in India."
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