MoHAM

We ended our term with our Annual Christmas and New Year celebrations. The Christmas spirit started with everyone (especially the kids) looking forward to our house to house caroling. For our Christmas day celebration, as always, we had Santa visit us with favorite goodies, followed by some beautiful Christmas programs and then we all had a delicious traditional Christmas dinner together. Handing over the baton to the coordinators of 2023, our DJ helped end the night playing our favorite numbers and we all danced away -- looking forward to a brighter and more blessed 2023.

The Holiday Season is upon us and let's get ready to celebrate Christmas and New Year on Dec 17th at the Cordes Elementary School. Please use the link below to register as soon as possible so that we can make the necessary food arrangements.

Many people decorate their homes with beautiful lights during Christmas. As always, we continued the tradition of recognizing the member whose house was decorated with the most beautiful decorations.

It has been 15 years since the Malayali community in MH was formed and we wanted to celebrate that with a Yearbook so that our growing community had the opportunity to understand when, where and how our current group of over 300 families started with just over 10 families and their journey and experiences.

The Youth League, being very active in sports, conducted their first sports day. They held a volleyball tournament and a table tennis tournament. They formed the teams and conducted a very successful sports day where the entire community participated and had fun together. The Youth were really appreciated for their dedication and support to the community.

We donated 7 full trays of white rice and 7 full trays of chicken curry to the St Mary's Dining Hall in Stockton. It is a way of giving back to the community and we do it every year. The people there really enjoy our Indian food and are very grateful for the support that we give them.

The MoHAM Youth group along with some adults went to Hayward and helped pack 10,000 packets of food for the needy. It was a very humbling experience. The kids got to know what it feels like to not know where your next meal is coming from.

Women everywhere are always busy taking with a lot of things like going to work, taking care of their families, managing the house. We wanted the ladies to have a day just for themselves where they could just come, sit, relax, meet new people, chat with friends, and not have to worry about their kids or family. The ladies got together, played games, laughed together, had dinner, and danced to their hearts' content. It was an unforgettable day for all.

We conducted a Halloween costume and pumpkin carving competition for the adults and kids. Many kids and adults took the time and effort to get dressed in their best Halloween costume and all the participants carved some very creative pumpkins.

We donated over 700 pounds of canned foods to the Tracy Interfaith Church that will help feed the homeless and impoverished people in our area.

MoHAM hosted a meet and greet event with Baiju Nair. He is a Kerala Sahithya Academy Award Winner, Indian Television Host, You Tuber, Author, Traveler and Automobile Journalist, Chief Editor of Smart Drive Automobile Magazine and Host of the TV Show "Smart Drive" in Asianet News.

We are happy that our MoHAM community has grown to over 300 families and for the first time, we prepared and served food to over 750 people. We started off with 10 days of Pookalam and had daily video releases with some amazing Onam recipes, songs, dances, and quizzes. We also had to make a lot of new changes to our Onam format. We had to arrange lunch in one school and the cultural programs were conducted in another school so that we could accommodate all the people. The highlight of the event was the delicious home cooked Sadhya that everyone enjoyed thoroughly, followed by our kids and adult's variety programs that were all entertaining and as always, we all had a good time.

The most anticipated event of the year is our Summer Picnic. This year our theme was "Hawaiian Picnic". Everyone came dressed in their favorite Hawaiian costume and enjoyed the BBQ Chicken, Hot Dogs, Grilled Paneer and Veggies, Omelet, Chicken and Beef Tacos, Dosa, Sambar & Chutney, Kappa & Chammandi, Bonda and Chai. After the wonderful food, everyone joined in playing games and we ended the day with our famous "VadamVali".

Being in the Central Valley, the soil is perfect for growing vegetables and fruits. When Covid came in 2022, everyone was stuck at home and so our MH gardeners had a lot of time to work on their beautiful gardens. We felt it was necessary to recognize their hard work and reward them for it. So, for the 1st time we had a Karshakashree competition where we recognized the best gardeners for their efforts.

Tomorrow the judges for "Karshakashree 2022" will be visiting the participants homes between 3pm and 6pm. All the best to our MoHAM family participants. Results will be announced during our Onam program.

In summer, a lot of elderly parents were visiting their kids from India, and they missed their friends and family back at home. So, we decided to have a night dedicated just for them to get them out of their homes and meet with all the other parents here. The parents had an opportunity to showcase their talents and enjoyed some home cooked food. They made new friends and had a fun evening.

Having understood that there are many avid card players in MH, we conducted a "Rummy" and "28" card tournaments. We had a good turnout for these games and the participants played with a lot of enthusiasm. Everyone involved had a good and memorable day.

We donated over 100 pairs of gently worn and new shoes that were recycled and sent to the villages of Africa, and the Middle East.

The MoHAM Youth League, being very active this year, conducted their first ever Youth Festival for the MH kids. They held competitions for Drawing, Painting, Math Bee, Spelling Bee, English Music, Malayalam Music, English Speech, Cinematic Dance and Carnatic Dance. The Youth team conducted all the events on time by themselves from the beginning and ended it beautifully with the prize distribution. We closed the evening with a beautiful live musical performance by Sudeep Kumar. A very well conducted event. Very proud of our youth team!

Kerala being a state with different types of food from different regions, we wanted everyone to get a feel and taste of the different cuisines of Kerala. MoHAM conducted its first ever "Taste of Kerala" event with the following stalls: Appam and Chicken / Veg Curry, Kappa, Chammandi & Fish Curry, Porotta and Beef Curry, Chicken/Veg Biriyani, Pongal, Dosa, Sambar & Chutney, Unniappam, Pazham Pori, Parippu Vada and Chai. The event was a huge hit and was very successful.

We were blessed to have many sponsors come forward to support us. We felt they needed a space to be properly recognized and a place where our MoHAM members could come and learn more about us. We launched a new website: https://www.mohamfoundation.com - which we believe should be the first and main source of communication for all our MoHAM activities.

Having grown to over 300 families, it was time for us to be a registered non-profit organization. So, after 15 long years, we registered ourselves as a 501©(3) non-profit organization called - MoHAM Foundation. It was a big dream come true moment for us.

To celebrate Valentine's Day, MoHAM had an online musical night with "Sudeep Kumar". This event was conducted to support the musicians in India suffering from Covid. The songs were very nostalgic, and all the MoHAM Family had a wonderful day. Sudeep also agreed to do a live event for us later in the year.

Our first event of 2022 was an online meeting with the Consulate General of India. He explained the OCI changes, Visitor visa issues and the Covid travel restrictions. It was a very valuable and informative session which we did in cooperation with CETAA and MANA.

Realizing we needed to raise funds to conduct the events for the year, we decided to print our 1st ever calendar. We are very grateful to all the sponsors who very willingly came forward to support us. This project was a huge success and it helped set the ball rolling for our work ahead.