Greater Geelong Nepalese Community (GGNEC) Inc.has celebrated Haritalika Teej virtually on 5/9/2021 with Darr (special Teej foods) distribution for its members and well-wishers.GGNEC was established in 2020 with the purposes of servicing the Nepalese & multicultural communities living in the South Barwon Greater Geelong Region.
The program was started with the Acknowledgments of the traditional owners of land and the welcoming of the GGNEC TEEJ Event chief guests,guests,GGNEC registered members and well-wishers.Event was MC by GGNEC Executive Member Mrs Anamika Shrestha who also provided a brief history of the Haritalika Teej festival and its origin and importance.Further,Mrs Shrestha has provided a briefing about GGNEC’s history,its activities so far with a brief introduction of team members within the GGNEC Executive Board.
GGNEC Founding President Dr Santosh Pandey has provided a welcome speech to Chief Guest Honourable MP Christine Couzens (State Member for Geelong,Victorian State Parliament),Guests Yan Lin (Director Hayeswinckle Geelong),Gyanendra Uprety (VMC Advisor Barwon SW Regio) and all presented registered GGNEC members and well-wishers.Dr Pandey provided a brief introduction of the women’s Haritalika Teej and its importance in creating social bonding and unity among community members and in handover of cultural practices from the elder generation to younger ones.He further explained how this event was planning to organise onsite but was done virtually due to current COVID-19 pandemic situation.Finally,Dr Pandey hoped that current pandemic restrictions will ease soon,and we as a community member can support the State to come back to pre-COVID19 life through getting COVID vaccinations as soon as possible.
Program Chief Guest Honourable MP Christine Couzens provided an encouraging speech with Acknowledgement of the traditional owners of the land.MP Couzens was pleased with the social community activities done by GGNEC during the current pandemic period and she was thankful for special food (Darr) distributed by GGNEC which she loved.MP Couzens appreciated seeing multicultural communities coming together during this pandemic situation and she is looking forward to catching up everyone once the lockdown is over.
The fantastic welcome dance was performed by Miss Ruchi Aryal at the start of the fun session, everyone enjoyed and appreciated Miss Aryal for her wonderful performance in which she danced beautifully.Fun group activities such as online Bingo, Quiz about Haritalika Teej,and a Lucky Draw were hosted by Mrs Upsana Amatya,Mrs Anamika Shrestha and Mrs Renu Lamsal Koirala. In online Bingo,it was a tie between two participants,so the winner was declared through a tiebreaker round where the final Bingo Winner was declared.In the Quiz, there were five Haritalika Teej related questions asked which need to be answers within 30 seconds in the Zoom chat boxes, surprisingly the winner was a non-Nepalese origin participant. At the lucky draw, names of all event participants were put inside a box and name of a lucky winner was drawn by one of GGNEC youngest members.
During the program, GGNEC has decided and announced winner of GGNEC Certification of Appreciation.
The winners for GGNEC Certificate of Appreciation were namely: Laligurans Groceries for its continuous support during food distribution to the international student at the pandemic;Global consulting, Mrs Yan Lin (Director Hayeswinckle Geelong) and Better Choice for sponsoring the event and our own caring Mrs Kriti Upreti Subedi for helping the community to get COVID-19 vaccinations effectively.
GGNEC Executive Advisor Dr Asheem Shrestha concluded the formal part of program with a brief closing speech. Dr Shrestha thanks Chief Guest Honourable MP Couzens,all distinguished guests and valuable GGNEC registered members & well-wishers for their valuable time and presence.
Dr Shrestha further congratulated the prize winners of Online Bingo, Quiz and Lucky Draw. Dr Shrestha praised the work done by the five winners of GGNEC Certificate of Appreciation.
Dr Shrestha appreciated the fantastic coordination done for this event to GGNEC program by the coordinators Mrs Renu Lamsal Koirala and Mrs Ninu Poon Magar.He has also provided special thanks to the GGNEC Founding Treasurer Mrs Upasana Amatya for arranging the zoom link and other logistic supports.He has credited the GGNEC Executive Member Mr Chiranjibi Pokhrel for arranging the catering services with delicious foods for Darr.
Dr Shrestha has also thanked all of the sponsors namely Multicultural Affairs of Victorian State Government, Hayeswinckle Geelong, Better Choice Mortgages and Global Consult who financially supporting this event.
Lastly,Dr Shrestha has shared his appreciation for the GGNEC Founding President Dr Santosh Pandey for his untiring efforts to unite the Nepalese communities living at the South Barwon Greater Geelong Region and performing outstanding community works during the current pandemic situation.
The event was concluded with playing popular Nepalese Teej songs and performing unique group dances of all participants. There were loads of fun discussion during this online event.Participants with non-Nepalese origins have also enjoyed this event with yummy foods.GGNEC Executive Member Mrs Anamika Shrestha has hosted this event beautifully where every participant enjoyed the event thoroughly.
GGNEC Online Teej Event MC GGNEC Executive Member Mrs Anamika Shrestha
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