SPONSORS MEETING in New Jersey October 29, 2005

One day, Dr. Lava emailed us and suggested to have a sponsors meeting in New Jersey. He wanted to meet like minded people who care for others. That was a wonderful idea. Therefore, we informed all our sponsors in New Jersey area and agreed to meet on the 29th of October 2005. Dr. Lava’s family sponsored this event and hosted this meeting at their Residence.

Myself, (Sam Vonumu) and Rena Vonumu drove from Silver Spring, Maryland to New Jersey to attend this meeting. Along with us, Susan Carson from Silver Spring, MD, Shyla John from Columbia, MD, Prasad & Vani Kunisetty from Franklin Park, New Jersey, Ravi Shankar & Vandana from Somerset, NJ, Prasad Alla from East Brunswick, NJ, and ofcourse, the host family Dr. Lava and Navin from Marlboro, New Jersey attended the meeting. 

Most of us never met each other before and this is the first time all of us met at a stranger’s place. It was really amazing how people from all likes of life has come together to participate in an event like this. We all sat together and introduced ourselves to each other for the first time. We then talked about our common goal of helping poor and needy children. Every one expressed their concern and commitment to continue helping their sponsored children. They wanted to do much more in the coming years. We spent around 3-4 hours together. By the time we concluded our meeting, all the strangers has become good friends.

We are very thankful to Dr. Lava & Dr. Navin Boggavarupu’s family for hosting this event. They hosted a home cooked dinner for all of us. They also accommodated all our sponsors visiting from Maryland in their house for overnight stay. It is very rare people do things like this. Now, we like to have a Sponsor’s meeting in Maryland area since many sponsors lives in the area.

Dr. Lava, a Phd. in computer Science and Dr. Navin, a Dentist along with their children Goutam, Jeevan and Ramya. They are supporting 5 children in India currently. They also introduced Dr. Maya Prabhu’s family who are currently supporting 3 children.

During our meeting, one of our sponsor asked a question to Susan. They asked her what made her to help a poor child in a foreign country, India. Every one were amazed with Ms. Susan Carson’s Words. Susan stated that she sees no nationality or religion. All she knew was, they were very poor and deserves help. They do not have the opportunities like we do here in America. The best way of reaching those needy children is to give a helping hand for education and that is what she is doing. Every one were very touched with her words. We are very happy to have her on our team. She is now our Executive Secretary for Vonumu international.

The picture on the top is, Ms. Susan Carson. She is now supporting 3 children through our organization.

The picture on the top is Mr. Prasad Alla. He joined our team this year and was very happy to meet all of us during the Sponsors meeting. He mentioned in the meeting that this is just the beginning. He wanted to do more in the future for this cause since he believes our objective as a Noble one. He mentioned that he and his wife had a very difficult time to choose a child from the list of 100 children this year. That was the hardest thing for almost all our sponsors since every one is a needy child and we cannot afford to help every one due to ourlimited earnings.

He introduced many good families to us which includes The Boggavarapu family, Athar Shariff family, and Murali Adari family. He is currently sponsoring one child.

The picture on the top is Ravi Shankar with his wife Vandana and two children Goutam and Madhav. They live is Somerset, New Jersey. The children are very small and keep both the parents very busy. Inspite of their busyness, they made it to the meeting. They mentioned in the meeting that, they had a bad experience before, helping a charity. They wrote a check for $300 which was claimed in a bank in Hong Kong for $30,000. The check bounced since this couple did not have that much money in their bank which was a good thing. Since then, they are very careful with charitable organizations. But they found 100% trust in Vonumu International as they could see everything going on in India as well as in USA.

They are happy with our Dedication and 100% accountability in everything we do. They are currently sponsoring 3 children in India. They also contributed $100 towards the 501 ( c ) tax exempt process with IRS during the meeting. It was nice meeting this nice family during our meeting.

The Picture on the top is Mr. Prasad Kunisetty along with his wife Satyavani Nagavarapu Kunisetty from Franklin Park, New Jersey. Prasad, during his life time as a journalist, saw thousands of poor people suffering without basic needs of life. Since then, he decided to help others. He changed his career to IT and then came to America with an objective of making big. He did not want to depend on others for anything. Therefore, he always did 2 jobs and finally started his own business. Currently, 70 people are working for him in his Company.

He wanted to help thousands of children soon as he is growing up successfully in his business. He found the trust which he was looking for when it comes to charity in Vonumu International. Therefore, he asked Mr. Vonumu to head his Foundation and other charities. Prasad’s family is currently supporting 5 children. They wanted to do a lot more soon. Prasad’s family has introduced many sponsors to our team which includes, Prasad Alla sponsoring 1 child, Mr. & Mrs. Ravi Shankar Pamidimukkala, sponsoring 3 children, Mr. & Mrs. Ramakrishna Grandhi, sponsoring 10 children, Mr. & Mrs. Narendra Narlasetty, sponsoring 1 child and Mr. & Mrs. Sudhakar Majety sponsoring 1 child.

Picture on the top is Dr. Lava, his children Jeevan, Goutam and Ramya, Mrs. Rena Vonumu and Mr. Sam Vonumu. On the floor is Dr. Navin (Mrs. Lava Boggavarapu) and Miss. Susan Carson.

We had few other sponsors in the area who sent us their best wishes since they could not attend the meeting. They are Ms. Vijaya Balan from South Brunswick, NJ, Kavitha & Saraswathi Saravanan from Monmouth Junction, NJ, Murali Adari, NJ, Mr. & Mrs. Raj Poosarla from Bridgewater, NJ, Mr. & Mrs. Sudhakar Majety from Phoenixville, PA and Mr. & Mrs. Narendra Narlasetty from Stamfort, CT.

The sponsors meeting was a wonderful event and we have decided to host similar meetings once a year in New Jersey for all of the sponsors living around that area. We want to host similar meeting in Maryland for all the sponsors around Maryland area. We are now looking for a place to host this type of event soon. We are very thankful and appreciate Dr. Lava & Dr. Navin Boggavarapu for their hospitality and invitation to host similar event at their location next year in 2006.