| Nepali educational and cultural center |
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Dear Community Members and well wishers,
As we march into another new year, we want to apprise you all with the strides made by the Nepal Education and Cultural Center (NECC) in the last year. As you all know, leaders of ANA came up with a vision to establish a Nepali Cultural Center, and initiated it first in the Washington DC Metro area, back in the 1990s The dream was to form a center where people could congregate to celebrate social and religious occasions, a place where news and information could be exchanged, a place to welcome and help new immigrants, a place where preservation of Nepali language, music, art and culture would persevere and flourish.
History: In 1996 a property consisting of 3.2 acres of land along with a house in Lanham, Maryland was bought. In the year 2000, Pashupati and Buddha Mandir were formally established at the Lanham property. To date, this property has been serving the Nepali community in the DC Metro area in exceedingly overwhelming numbers. Several physical improvements have been made to this property over the years. However, due to the shape of the land and other regulatory constraints, our dream to make a full fledged Mandir encompassing Nepali architecture could not be accomplished on this property. During the same time Washington D.C. community as envisioned by ANA leaders being in the forefront of community involvement came up with new concept of energizing by coming up with NECC- Vitalizing Action Committee. Within a relatively short period of time the community decided to purchase a bigger lot elsewhere. Last year we accomplished that goal by purchasing another property including a house and a barn in a 9.4 acres lot.
While this is a significant achievement on the part of the NECC Management team and the local community numbering in hundreds of active volunteers via coordination committee, it also means that we owe mortgage payments on two properties now. Until and unless the old property is sold, we will be making payments on these two properties. The management team has been trying to sell the old property to bring down liabilities of new property since last year but the real estate market is not in favor of sellers as of now.
The local community in the D.C. Metro area has relentlessly raised funds for the last several years to support this noble endeavor. Lately, community members have even loaned money at a nominal rate such that we can dispose high interest loans. We are thankful to those folks and would want to do it right by supporting them.
Our goal is to bring the Cultural Center to fruition so that interest people of ANA, Nepali Americans, Non Resident Nepalis, and People of Nepali origin and future generations can be proud of our roots and heritage. To accomplish this we request all Diaspora organizations, community members and friends of Nepal to continue their generous support anew to this cause. Donations can be made via Pay Pal by clicking the link http://www.anaonline.org/necc_donation. Checks payable to NECC can also be mailed at the following address:
12602 Etruscan
Dr. Herndon, VA 20171
The Board of Directors of NECC would like to extend you all the very best of the Holiday season and a very happy New Year.
Please let us know if you have any questions in this regards.
We could be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Sincerely, Naveen Dutta Executive DirectorNECC Board of Directors Nepal Education and Cultural Center
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