ICCC Communique #2

Members’ Communique #2 (June 2017)

Recent initiatives/events:

• Asian Heritage Month (AHM) (May 2017): ICCC contacted Indo-Canadian and India-friendly organizations in Ottawa to provide their events held during May 2017. A few events were received and posted in the AHM calendar. Kanwal Talwar attended the two AHM functions hosted by the Ministry of Heritage. It was under-represented by Indo-Canadians. In 2018, we will take new measures, and seek the cooperation of all Indo-Canadian associations to gear up the visibility of Indo-Canadian events during the AHM month.
• Festival of Kerala (27^th of May 2017) event: This event was jointly done with the High Commission of India and the Malayali Association of Ottawa. It was a great success and ICCC owes thanks to many people who cooperated in making it successful. The function was well attended by nearly 450-500 people and provided a glimpse into the beauty and the art and culture of Kerala. Our Chief Guest, His Excellency Vikas Swarup, High Commissioner for India, greatly praised the collaborative effort of the Indo-Canadian community and hoped that similar regional events will be held annually or every six months.
• Summer students: ICCC has hired three summer students under a Federal Govt. grant. These students have started earlier this month and will be helping with organising the events, databases and ICCC’s presence in social media, i.e. Facebook and Twitter.
• The ICCC website – The Virtual Hub of the Indo-Canadian Community of Ottawa: The new website (https://icccottawa.org) is up and running. We request you kindly to visit the website and leave a comment on the ‘Contact Us’ page. We crave for your input and suggestions.
• Community Directory (https://icccottawa.org/community-directory/): ICCC is embarking on building an Indo-Canadian Community Directory (primarily, a mailing list) for Ottawa. We are also taking measures to gather community information and events and publish those in the Indo-Canadian community virtual hub.
• Community Centre Property exploration: Efforts are continuing to explore further details of the property under investigation by Nitya Varma’s team.
• The Meditation and Peace Garden project: There’s no further progress yet. Efforts are under way to obtain collaboration with the City of Ottawa.
• Parents Day celebration by Seniors: The seniors have jointly celebrated the “Parents Day” (Mother’s Day and Father’s Day combined) on Friday, the 9^th of June. Over 80 seniors joined and had a party at lunch.

Upcoming community events:
Please check out the Events Calendar –  https://icccottawa.org/events-calendar.

• 23rd June – “Mahatma Gandhi Today – In India and the World” Panel Discussion: Mahatma Gandhi Peace Council of Ottawa has organized this event on Friday, the 23^rd of June at 2:00 pm. See event details at https://icccottawa.org/gandhi-panel-discussion.
• 23rd June – Air India Memorial Service: The entire Ottawa community will gather at Commissioner’s Park, near Dows Lake (event details at: https://icccottawa.org/airindia2017) on Friday, 23^rd of June 2017 at 6:30 pm to provide support to the loved ones of the victims of the Air India flight 182 that perished in the skies 32 years ago. ICCC is participating in this event, which is of great significance to Ottawa community.
• 24th June – MSMF Annual Picnic 2017: This annual event (see details at https://icccottawa.org/msmf2017) will be held at Andrew Hayden Park on Saturday, the 24th of June 2017 from 11 AM to 5 PM.
• 25th June – International Day of Yoga:  This event is hosted by the High Commission of India and will be held at Infinity Convention Centre, Ottawa on Sunday, 25^th of June 2017 at 10 am – 1 pm. See the event details at https://icccottawa.org/yoga2017. Participation is FREE, but registration is required. About 700 participants from across the Ottawa community are expected to participate in this function. ICCC is partnering in this function and contributing to the T-Shirts campaign, a stall and other preparations.

Community collaboration:    

• OIFFA (Ottawa Indian Film Festival Awards): ICCC was represented in the OIFFA function.
• Sikh Community Services: ICCC was also represented in the Sikh Community Services Luncheon for seniors.
• Barrhaven Seniors Association: is partnering with ICCC Seniors. Their President, Mr. Brij Gupta has been invited to join the ICCC Seniors Program Coordination Committee.

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Virtual Hub – Website: https://icccottawa.org