Assist RR Annual Dinner on 23 Jan 2016

Assist RR’s annual dinner took place on 23 Jan 2016 in Hayes, Middlesex, UK. The dinner was houseful and was very successful in terms of disseminating information and raising funds. The dinner raised £4350 through donations, ticket sales, raffles and American Auction. In addition, there was a one-off personal donation of £3750 by Dr V Vipulendran (MIOT Wales), Dr Mrs Somasundararajah (Birmingham) and their siblings towards building 5 shelters in Sampoor in memory of their mother. Solihull Junior School donated a cheque for £880. This is in addition to the £8000 they donated in Oct 2015. All the expenses including hall hire, food, DJ, etc, were met by sponsorships by some of our charity members. We would like to thank the members, who funded various expenses. We also would like to thank our members and volunteers, who made the event very successful. Without their hard work, we couldn’t have made it a successful dinner.  Our special thanks to our Sri Lankan Coordinator Mr Henry Amalraj, who came all the way from Sri Lanka to be with us at the dinner and to share his experience.

We would like to thank those who joined us as guests and would like to express our gratitude to our speakers: Mr R D Ratnasingam, Chairman of Trustees, Shri Kanagathurkkai Amman Temple, Ealing, Middelsex; Mr Mark Penney, Head of Solihull Junior School, West Midlands; Dr V Vipulendran, MIOT Wales; Dr K Somasundararajah, Our Patron and Trustee of Balaji Temple; Mr Matthew Maxwell Scott, Conservative Spokesman, Carshalton & Wallington. We shouldn’t forget the artists who performed singing and dancing. The performances of all the artists were very professional and impressive.  Although Mr Penney couldn’t understand the language, he was very impressed with the performances (singing and dancing).  Thank you to all those who performed: Miss Sahana Sivarajah, Essex – Songs; Master Subaram Suthaharan, Essex – Dance; Miss Archanya Arumthavarajah, Croydon – Songs; Mr Sinthujan Sivarajah, Essex – Flute; Miss Vaishnavi Shangar, South West London – Classical Dance. We also shouldn’t forget the amateur singers who participated in the karaoke, which was well received.  Doctors from MIOT Wales sang very well and took us back to the 1970s. It was suggested that we should continue with this format in the future as well.