Awards

2021 Awards

Sunil Singh Pramod Kumar Philanthropy

Sunil Singh from Washington D.C. is a community leader for the Washington D.C. area for the past three decades. Born in 1959 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. He completed his bachelors in engineering from Allahabad University in 1982 and worked as Assistant professor at PostGraduate College in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh. He also served as the Assistant Director of the National Productivity Council at Lodhi Rd, New Delhi.

Mr. Singh immigrated to the USA in 1994 and opened his wings to explore opportunities. In 2002 he acquired his first franchise restaurant in Maryland, and continued growing at a very fast pace. Currently his business empire has grown to close to 50 restaurants across multiple states in the USA. He also has ventured into Hotels and owns a Hilton Garden Inn in Manassas, VA. Mr. Singh strongly believes in diversification and entered in the real estate market in 2014 and currently owns over 100 commercial and residential properties.

Sunil Singh is not only a great businessman, but also a philanthropist and an accomplished community activist. He had the distinction of serving as the President of the Rajput Association, Washington D.C. Sunil Singh shared the dais with prominent Indian American leaders from across the United States along with The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr, the renowned Civil Rights leader at Washington D.C. On May 19,2021 to request President Biden to send COVID vaccines to India and other developing countries.

Dr. Mrs. Santosh Kumar first met Sunil Singh at Washington D.C. when she was invited along with Dr. Vijay G. Prabhakar from Chicago to welcome the Indian Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission Amit Kumar in 2019. Gunjan Rastogi Community Service Award

Mrs. Gunjan Rastogi is an entrepreneur, community leader, philanthropist, social worker, and resident of New York City whose dedicated service to the community-at-large is lauded and acclaimed by many residents in the United States. Gunjan migrated to the United States in 1981 after completing her Bachelor of Science Degree from Miranda House College located in New Delhi, India. Upon her arrival to New York, she furthered her education by earning a diploma in Computer Science and pursued a career as a Software Engineer for 10 years with leading Wall Street Fortune 500 companies such as Prudential Securities, Lehman Brothers, UBS, and Fidelity Investments. In pursuit of the true American dream, Gunjan’s passion for helping others led her to start UniversaCare. UniversaCare is a licensed and accredited Home Healthcare Agency which provides skilled and non-skilled care to seniors in the comfort of their own home. Gunjan currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the organization and oversees the Agency’s operations and growth plans. UniversaCare currently operates two offices with ambitious plans to open more branch locations across the country. Gunjan’s passions run deeper than just her professional career. Hailing from a culturally gifted family, her late parents based out of Faizabad, India, encouraged her to pursue the arts from a young age. With the strong support from her family, Gunjan was able to excel in the performance and expression of Indian arts and culture. She is the recipient of several awards and accolades for her prowess in folk and classical dancing, singing, acting and choreography. Due to the popularity that she gained from a young age, Gunjan modeled for Campa-Cola, a market leader in the Indian market during the 1970s and 1980s. She was a noted TV anchor in Lucknow for the children’s program ‘Nanhe Munne’ and performed the lead female role in several stage theater performances like “Lal Rekha” and “Udhar ka Patti” before moving to the United States. Elizabeth Cagan Partnership Award

Elizabeth Cagan earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from Northwestern University and her Master of Arts Degree in International Relations from The University of Chicago. For the past twenty-five years, she has served as Executive Director of White Crane Wellness Center, a not-for-profit organization that sustains the mission to improve the health and well-being of older adults. In this capacity, Elizabeth oversees the operations of an agency that provides health and support services for more than 5,000 individuals annually. Under her leadership, White Crane expanded its service delivery throughout Chicago, as well as to suburban Cook, Lake, and DuPage County. The organization developed an innovative Adult Day Wellness Center for older adults at-risk for institutionalization, was the recipient of a five-year Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant and selected twice by GlaxoSmithKline and The University of Pennsylvania for excellence in health service delivery for diverse populations. Additionally, White Crane is the proud recipient of the Sid Granet Award, presented by Illinois Association of Area Agencies on Aging, as well as the Program Standout Award, presented by AgeGuide. The organization was twice selected by National Council on Aging as a Best Practice Model. In her role as Executive Director, Elizabeth served as Regional Chair and Chicago Committee Regional Coordinator, while currently serving as President of the statewide Illinois Adult Day Services Association. She serves on the board of directors of Coalition of Limited English-Speaking Elderly (CLESE) as well. Elizabeth is also a board member of Southland Human Services Leadership Council and co-chair of its senior services work group.

Jahnavi Bavisi Pillar of MAFS

Jahnavi Bavisi is a Manager at Metropolitan Asian Family Services, has been working with MAFS since 2004. she is responsible for all office procedures and uses her organizational skills to ensure smooth operations in a busy work environment. Born and educated in Mumbai, India. She did her graduation in commerce from the Kandivali Education Society in 2001. Ms. Bavisi has a vision of inspiring others to support her in synchronizing with the uppermost management goals. She sees her parent’s image in every senior and it gives her joy to serve them.

Radhika Subramanian

Outreach Award

Radhika Subramanian is a very resourceful, hardworking, motivated, and proactive individual with experience in teaching, event management, organization, and teamwork. Her strengths include leading by setting an example, motivating people, and a strong work ethic. Her record of accomplishment of responsibility, having a positive attitude, attentiveness, organizational skills, completion of tasks in a timely manner, and being a strong role model are what make her an asset to Metropolitan Asian Family Services. She has a master’s in languages from India and a certification for Psychology from Yale and contact tracing from Johns Hopkins. Her ability to converse in multiple languages enhances her versatility as a Public Benefits person in our valuable organization. Prior to joining our team in Naperville, she worked in Indian Prairie School District 204 from 2007-2019. Eugenie Favre Coordinator of the Year

Eugenie Favre is an SOS Coordinator at our Chicago office since 2018. She works as an Intake EST with CEDA helping seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families with help with their light, gas, and Water bill. Ms. Favre also helps families who have not had their homes weatherized in the last 10 years get weatherization for their homes. Ms. Favre also provides our clients with Benefit Access bus passes, Public assistance applications, and more.

Ms. Favre goes above and beyond to assist her clients. Ms. Favre is a very cheerful person always smiling.

Himali Bharucha

Health Research Award

Himali is a part of a Northwestern Research Grant to reduce the risk factors of Heart Diseases such as Heart Attacks and/or Strokes in South Asian Community. She worked with South Asian Healthy Heart Life Style Intervention (SAHELI) Research Study and a Diabetes Prevention Exercise Intervention. She has experience with Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program of Age Options, Title-D since she joined MAFS in 2006. She has a Bachelor’s in Accounting, in conjunction with Teaching, including State of Illinois and Chicago Board of Education Substitute Teacher and Bilingual Certificates. She is trained to measure Blood Pressure and BMI and is certified to perform finger-stick screenings for HbA1c and Cholesterol.

Girish Machhar Volunteer of the Year

Girish Machhar is a retired civil engineer. He completed his education in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Then migrated to the US IN 1971. He is married to Rasila Machhar for 51 years and has one son, one daughter, and three grandchildren. Machhar family has lived in Schaumburg since 1975. He retired in 2009 after 42 years of service in consulting and construction firms. After retirement, he studied and learned the Sanskrit language under the guidance of Shri Anantabhai Rawal. He has volunteered at the Roselle location of MAFS for several years. He has given lectures explaining Bhagavad Gita to seniors at the Roselle MAFS center. He is also volunteering at Jalaram Temple in Hoffman Estates teaching the Gujarati language to children. He believes in serving the community during retirement as much as possible. Jayshree Thakkar Cook of the Year

Jayshree Thakkar is a B. Com graduate from Anand, Gujarat, India. She started her career as an Assistant cook in Naperville ADS center when the Naperville location was opened in June 2010. She has a calm and collected nature and is also very sincere in her work.

She oversees and prepares the breakfast meals served daily to the ADS seniors from Monday to Friday and is an expert in making fluffy dhoklas that the seniors enjoy. We hope she will continue with MAFS for a long time!