HYDERABAD: Telugus planning to shift to the US can probably breathe a little easy now, knowing that a support group has been formed for the benefit of the community across North America. Keeping the history of shootouts against professionals in the US in the recent times, a support group comprising lawyers, educationists, financial, medical and social professionals has been the need of the hour for many Teleugus settled abroad, feels Nadella Rana Kumar, the President of the North American Telugu Society (NATS) on Thursday.
Formed just around three months back, the recent activities of NATS are presently limited to formulating strategies to “effectively render our services to the community,” said Kumar. Though still in its teething phase, Kumar assures that “local contacts have been setup at every major city in North America, including Canada, to help fellow Telugus.” Among the services rendered, NATS representatives would be aiding students and young professionals with immigration issues, apart from providing training and employment aids, Kumar added.
Touting the society as a ‘not for profit’ oriented venture, NATS would be providing financial consultancy services, apart from career counselling to younger NRIs. “One of our aims is to orient those freshly out of India with the change in culture and environment, while connecting them with long time NRIs from the community,” Kumar remarked. Setting aside introductions to cultural differences, the Society also aims to play the mediator in cased of family disputes among NRIs. “We would intervene and attempt to figure out solutions in issues like family and marital discord, whenever such cases are brought to our notice,” Kumar adds.
Apart from ensuring peace within the community, the Society is gearing up to meet the challenges of external forces. “The attacks on Indians for example,” members of NATS opined, “are usually sporadic acts of violence, which bear little connection to each other.” Though they are quick to add that “the problem is aggravated when some of the youth, in a bid to save up money, are forced to shift to unsafe or potentially conflictprone neighbourhoods, which is an issue the Society will be focussing on.” With tie ups with the local governance in the US on the cards for the Society members, non resident Telugus can perhaps look forward to scale the foreign streets safely again.