His Excellency Shri Piyush Srivastava has announced a new team for the Indian Community Relief Fund (ICRF) at a meeting. Dr Babu Ramachandran has been named as the Chairman of the new team of ICRF, which is functioning under the patronage of the Ambassador of India to Bahrain. Dr Babu shall be taking charge in place of Aruldas Thomas who has completed his term of three years as Chairman of ICRF.
The new executive team includes Adv. V K Thomas as Vice-Chairman, Pankaj Nallur as General Secretary, Mani Lakshmanamoorthy as Treasurer, Ms Nisha Rangarajan and Anish Sreedharan as Joint Secretaries and Rakesh Sharma as Joint Treasurer.
Aruldas Thomas shall continue as Ex-Officio/Advisor with the new team. Bhagwan Asarpota will also continue as Advisor. Other Excom members are Suresh Babu, Murli Nomula, Zulfikar Ali, Pankaj Malik, Javad Pasha and Ms Raman Preet. The executive team shall be supported by ICRF Full team members, regional forum members and Volunteers which are unchanged.
His Excellency appreciated the great work undertaken by ICRF under the chairmanship of Aruldas Thomas specially during these difficult times. His Excellency also congratulated Dr Babu and the new team.
About the Indian Community Relief Fund
ICRF is a non-government, non-profit organization established in the year 1999, working under the patronage of the Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Bahrain for the general welfare of the Indian workers in Bahrain. Our mission is to give a helping hand to the economically weaker section of the Indian community in Bahrain.
This includes Legal Aid, Emergency Help, Community Welfare Services, Medical assistance, Counseling etc. The Emergency Help Team offers a 24 hour helpline for reporting any complaints of maltreatment, abuse, assault or assistance for those seeking any legitimate advice. With various regional sub-committees, the Emergency team is well prepared to assist Indian nationals in emergencies like natural calamity, flood, fire etc.
ICRF- Community Welfare Services organizes medical camps as a part of their outreach activity, where Indian workers can avail medical facilities free of cost. So far we have conducted over 130 such medical camps that have benefited more than 40,000 needy persons. ICRF’s Community Welfare services also include, Salmaniya Mortuary visit, prison visit, Immigration detention center visit, Immigration Directorate visit etc.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, ICRF has reached out to the community by providing dry food ration, Air tickets, face masks, antibacterial soaps, awareness flyers etc., which benefited over 50,000 under-privileged Indian workers.
One of the unique features of the ICRF is the Family Relief Fund, which extends financial assistance to the dependents of poor workers who perished in Bahrain. ICRF raises its funds by organizing events like SPECTRA – a yearly Drawing and Painting competition for school children and through generous contributions. So far we have given out more than 5 Crore Indian Rupees to more than 500+ families