After mesmerizing musical lovers all across the world with her melodious voice, top Bollywood singer Shreya Ghoshal is on AAPI’s Multi-City Educational/Musical Program this Fall, performing in nine cities around the United States.
Organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin (AAPI), the spectacular musical program combined with educational and networking opportunities is being organized with the objective of bringing CME and non-CME sponsored medical lectures, exhibits, Gala Dinner, community outreach talks and lively musical nite in each of the nine cities across the country.
The first of the nine Multi City Educational programs will be on September 21 in Charlotte, NC, and the grand finale will be on October 7, 2012 in San Jose, CA.
Other cities that participate in the Tour include: New York on September 22nd; Columbus, OH on September 23rd; Orlando Florida on September 28th; Houston, TX on September 29th; Atlanta, GA on September 30th; Washington DC on October 5th; and Dallas, TX on October 6th.
“It all began with the idea of strengthening the relationship between the AAPI Chapters and national office,” says Dr. Narendra Kumar, President of AAPI. “The concept of this program to bring together various local Chapters closer has been in my mind for several years.
Drs. Jayesh Shah, Ravi Jahagirdar and Hemant Dhingra enthusiastically received this idea and the net result of our collaboration and dialogue is the Multi-City Tour.”
Describing the process leading to the Tour, Dr. Ravi Jahagirdar, Vice-President of AAPI, recalls, “Realizing that it takes a lot of coordination and tremendous effort, we were successful in involving over two dozen AAPI office-bearers of various Chapters and Executive Committee members.
Each of them was willing to give $10,000 of his/her personal money as seed money to put the program together at zero risk and no cost to AAPI, while committing to have the funds raised would be given to AAPI, the local Chapters, and the many philanthropic endeavors organized by AAPI and its Charitable Foundation.”
Dr. Dhingra, who has close relationship with the Entertainment Industry, worked with Shri Balaji Entertainment in the signing of the contract for Shreya and her team to present an evening of cultural entertainment in each of these nine cities. Shreya Ghoshal, who became a household name after her Bollywood debut in Sanjay Bhansalij’s famous movie Devdas, where she rendered her voice to Paro, has won the hearts of millions by singing in Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi & other languages.
The talented young artist and youth icon has worked in more than 180 films and is the recipient of numerous National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards in a very short span.
“Entertainment was only just one component of the entire program,” Dr. Kumar adds. The idea is to put together mini seminars, networking and strengthening the relationship between members and the national office. “Due to popular demand from several physicians on the need for enhancing scientific component at AAPI meetings and allowing greater number of members to participate, AAPI has now pioneered the first series of nine multi-city programs to make it easy for physicians to participate locally avoiding extensive travel and time away from practice,” he explains.
In its efforts, AAPI has been joined by the Indo-American Psychiatric Association in America and the Association of Cardiologists of Indian Origin. The Seminars and workshops will be led by accomplished faculty of leading Cardiologists, Cardiovascular Surgeons and Psychiatrists. Each of the nine medical educational programs is expected to have an audience of 250-400 Physicians, which will be followed by annual gala event and entertainment with an expected 2,500+ audience at each location.
“Many of our industry partners liked this concept where they could get prime time with a few hundred doctors for product promotion/theater, non CME lectures, exhibits, booths,” Dr. Jayesh Shah, President-Elect of AAPI, says. “These multi-city mini-seminars are a novel concept for education and recreation that will raise funds for the local chapters of AAPI, the national AAPI and the AAPI Charitable Foundation.”
Dr. Jahagirdar promises to “make this event both transparent and successful, and we hope it becomes an annual event. Many of our industry partners have also shown great interest in this concept, where they can receive prime time with a few hundred doctors for product promotion, theater, non-CME lectures, exhibits and booths. Because of this, we hope to have a significant number of national sponsors for this program.”
AAPI has established itself as the most successful and premiere ethnic medical organization in the United States. AAPI-CF is committed to serve the poorest of the poor in remote areas of India and USA. The AAPI Charitable Foundation is the crest jewel of AAPI.
Nick Nipan Shroff, Chair of AAPI-Charitable Foundations, says, since 1992, the Foundation has been providing an infrastructure support system for needy patients in India with two main goals: enabling AAPI members to commit their time and resources to support the clinics for the indigent; and to monitor effectively the clinics’ progress and be accountable for the overall success of the project.
According to Dr. Shroff, AAPI-CF oversees 17 clinics in as many states in India. “In fact, more than a million patients have received much needed medical, thanks to on-site and outreach programs conducted by these medical clinics.
AAPI has always been present when calamities strike whether it is the Tsunami, Katrina, or Earthquakes in Gujarat and Maharashtra. AAPI is supporting three cancer centers and has developed three major trauma centers and a hospital in Bhuj. The Visanagar Clinic in Gujarat even received the Rotary International’s Model Clinic Award,” he elaborates.
In the US, AAPI’s commitment is to the needs of people living in urban areas without the benefit of medical insurance, in contrast to India, where the rural poor face the acutest health problems. Moving forward, the Foundation wants to “fulfill our organization’s goal of supporting at least one clinic in each Indian State.
We have also joined hands with other NGOs such as the Seva International to provide relief help during disasters. Partnering with the Nandi Foundation, we will provide purified water to several villages in hopes of preventing water-related diseases. Currently our foundation is trying to work on newer projects like: ECHO project for rural India and Vaccination project,” he says.
Dr. Kumar, while assuming office as the president of AAPI had committed “to bring all our AAPI chapters together, strengthen our network and develop better relationships. Along with this effort, try to generate revenue for the sustainability of the national as well as local Chapters.” This extensive Musical/Educational Tour program put together by Dr. Kumar and his Team is a step towards reaching the message of AAPI across the globe and help AAPI realize its noble mission.
India Post News Service
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