GEORGIA, U.S., April 5, 2012 (News Bharati): Swadesh Katoch, a prominent face of Indians in Georgia who owns an IT company, has been awarded with a humanitarian award by the Georgia Association of Physicians of Indian Heritage (GAPI) for his outstanding work for the resettlement of Bhutanese Hindu refugees.
This award was given to Swadesh at the GAPI’s annual function along with $1,000. Swadesh Katoch announced to use the prize for an eye health project for Bhutanese and to help Hindu widows in Pakistan.
Since the late 1980s, conflict between ethnic groups in the country of Bhutan resulted in a mass exodus of southern Bhutanese. As reported by Hinduism Today here, from 1991 until their departure to western countries for resettlement, around 110,000 Bhutanese citizens lived in U.N. refugee camps in Nepal. In 2006, the United States volunteered to shelter 60,000 of the Bhutanese refugees. Since 2007, hundreds of these refugees have arrived in the U.S. This was the largest influx of refugees in recent History of the United States.
A majority of these refugees (mainly Nepali speaking Hindus) had limited literacy and were not exposed on urban or western life style. These refugees were only given a few months of support by the US government. Swadesh Katoch recognized the problem of these Hindu refugees and started helping them with his unique organizational skills. Eventually, his efforts became a movement uniting Hindu communities, temples, and other Hindu faith based organizations across the United States for the resettlement of 60,000 Bhutanese refugees.
Swadesh Katoch is a volunteer of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since his childhood. He is Sewa Pramukh and Sah-karyawah of Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh’s Shri Sakti Sakha of Atlanta. He has dedicated this award to thousands of Sewa and Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh karyakartas who are working relentlessly for the society around them.