Washington, DC – Health, a primary concern for American families is getting a focus from a nascent charity organization across the Greater Washington capital area. The American Diversity Group (ADG) has been organizing health fairs where free healthcare services are provided for a large number of attendees, who would not have, otherwise, been able to afford health insurance or regular checkups.
Having recently celebrated its first anniversary, ADG looked back at a year full of 16 health fairs in 2016 and partnering with other organizations to conduct events like walk/run for cancer with Stella Patch Foundation.
At these fairs, the ADG provided different medical specialties including cardiology, dentistry, endocrinology, gastroenterology, orthopedics, rheumatology and podiatry, in addition to primary care. At most of these events, the ADG volunteers also coordinated diabetes and cancer prevention education vendors, healthy living demos and advice booths.
These heavily attended free health fairs, open to people of all different ethnic, religious and socio-economic backgrounds, were held in 2016 at community centers and worship places of different religions, providing attendees of all hues with multiple medical resources under one roof, and fulfilling an acute need for such services.
Expressing satisfaction at a successful first year, Jay Parekh. Co-founder of ADG and President of KloudData said, “In our first year of service to the various American communities, it is heartening to see the dedication of the volunteers from different walks of life including medicine. We look forward to the future and establishing ways and means to have sustainability in the ADG efforts.”
On the vision and sustainability for the ADG, Parekh, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, India said, “ADG till date has been bootstrapping the initiative and with the tremendous help from the volunteers has been able to grow the presence to serve the community. However, with our vision of broader and deeper reach to the community in terms of larger population (broader) and more services (deeper) in the coming year and for future, we are actively pursuing participation in possible grants as well as other funding sources.”
“In order for the long term viability and sustainability, we would request monetary donations from private organizations with budgets for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and from Public entities such as Local, State and Federal Government,” continued Parekh, concluding, “Such funds will enable us to establish some full-time help to run the ADG operations in addition to the volunteers spending their personal time.”
Mayur Mody, the second board member of the ADG initiative said, “Our focus is on improving health care access to underserved individuals by providing them with proper healthcare related education. We are dedicated to the sole purpose of empowering communities to lead high-quality lives with respect and dignity.” Mody has also been nominated to serve on various local government committees including Standing Advisory Board for Montgomery Cares Committee.
Thanking medical staff including doctors for their time and effort, Hina Mehta, an active volunteer told IAT, “ADG and our group is doing our part to serve the community and I request everyone to contribute however they can and make this a success.” On her personal commitment, Mehta added, “I volunteer with many organizations but by the third ADG health fair, I knew I need to contribute my time to ADG and be part of something bigger and more grass root.”
In addition to the ADG officials and volunteers including doctors, others in attendance at the event were Steven J. McAdams, Executive Director, Maryland Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives; Clarence K. Lam, Democrat, District 12, Baltimore County & Howard County; Marc Elrich, Council Member Montgomery County; Christina Wong Poy, Maryland Governor’s Commission on South Asian American Affairs.
In a major boost for the ADG efforts, McAdams announced his willingness to be a felicitator and assist the ADG in future endeavors.
