News letter 7, 2005

Dear friends, 24-11-05

First of all, the Executive Council would like to thank all members who attended the Workshop on Immigration and race relations and the General Body on the 29^th of October and made it a success. Following this, the Manchester Malayalee Association, with the support of Voluntary Action Manchester (VAM), Community Chest, Neighborhood Renewal unit (NRU) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) will be hosting a FREE interactive and educative workshop on

CRIME PREVENTION ANDANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

On 17^th of December, 3-5pm

Venue: Manchester Bridge Club, 30 Palatine Road,

West Didsbury, Manchester, M20 3JJ.

Issues and queries related to prevent all forms of crime such as house burglaries, car theft, racially motivated crimes and anti-social behavior will be discussed in this workshop.

Further, in keeping up with the festive spirit, MMA is organizing a

Christmas Celebration with carol, message and dinner on the 17^th of December

at the West Indian Community Hall, Carmoor Road

Longsight, MANCHESTER M13 0EA at 8.00 pm.

Prior to this, a General Body Meeting will be held at 6 pm at the West Indian Community Hall. During the last two months, seven vacancies have arisen in our Council. Although the reasons are varied, in the Monthly Council Meeting on the12^th November, the Council decided that, it may be appropriate to call an early election, rather than filling up the vacancies. The main agenda of the proposed General Body Meeting is to elect an Election Commission to conduct the 2006-07 elections to the Executive Council.

We are taking this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to our esteemed members for their support and encouragement to this Council during the last 8 months. In addition to the Annual Membership Subscription, we have obtained City Council funding worth of £4000 through competitive bidding. By mid-December, the Council would have successfully conducted eight programmes so far – the details are given below.

· Kathakali,

· Globalization and Poverty (Participation in the Make Poverty History Campaign),

· Sports Day

· Family Tour to Lake District,

· Onam celebrations

· Seminar on Immigration and Race relations,

· Seminar on Crime Prevention and Anti- Social Behavior and

· Christmas Celebration.

Through many of these programmes, we have also collaborated with the wider Indian community which has provided a wide exposure to the Malayalee Community in Manchester. Further, representatives from the City Council, the UK government and the Indian Consulate have participated in our events.

We have also increased our economic assets during this term, with the purchase of a data projector, wide screen, vadam and a laptop.

In addition to these, the Council was able to finalize the discussion on the Constitution, which has been inserted in our website. We also achieved a reasonable degree of success in updating the address details of our members and have developed our website to include many user friendly features. We have finalized a logo and caption for the Association, and developed links with NORKA. We also sent seven news letters to our members on order to update the events. Internally, we have developed a system of communication based on e-mails which ensures more transparency and openness in our functioning.

Nevertheless, we do recognize that we have not been able to complete many tasks as envisaged in the beginning of the term or fulfill some fully to our satisfaction, which of course, is partly due to the structural constraints faced by any organization in its teething stages. We are taking this opportunity to request our members to bear with us, if we have not met your expectations. In this context, we are really thankful to our esteemed members who have worked with us despite these limitations and we hope that you will continue to support the Manchester Malayalee Association.

Best wishes

Executive Council

Note on the details of funding obtained from various agencies

(2005 April- November)

Five applications for funding, worth £7000 has been applied up to 30^th of May 2005. All the five applications have been approved through competitive funding process by the various agencies.

1. For organising a Sports day and Onam Celebrations - £1000 (Manchester City Council)

2. For conducting a workshop on Immigration Law and Race Relations and buying a Mini Data Projector - £1500 (VAM)

3. For conducting a workshop on Crime Prevention and Anti Social Behaviour, buying a Laptop and a White Screen for the Projector - £1492.79 (VAM)

4. For publishing a Souvenir/Ia Souvenir/information Booklet and nformation booklet and organising a Kerala Fest - £1500 (VAM)

5. For purchasing Malayalam books to make a library, organising a Women’s day buying a Photocopier, a colour printer and ink cartridges - £1499.80 (VAM)

It should be noted that, even though VAM has approved funding worth £6000 they have only released funding worth £3000, i.e. for the 2nd and 3rd projects above. They will release the funding for the 4th and 5th projects above only after we have successfully conducted the 2nd and 3rd projects above and after we submit the accounts for the same. So altogether the funding released so far (as on 25/11/2005) is £4000.

With regard to buying the assets mentioned in the above projects, at least 2 quotes for each item is given to VAM and they have checked it to see whether it is the cheapest product available and have approved it. It may also be noted that funding cannot be used across projects, i.e. the 1500 pounds allotted to conduct the workshop on Immigration Law and Race Relations and buying a Mini Data Projector should be used for the same only, it cannot be used for, for example buying a laptop. The grant we got from Manchester City council to conduct the sports and Onam celebrations will not be available for another three years. However the funding from VAM is available every year if our application is successful.