Sneham’s mission can be summarized in a very few short words: Sneham promotes fun, fellowship and service among its members and friends, and offers a forum for exchange of information about the community it serves. It strives to serve all groups, with special emphasis on the youth of our community.

As its name implies, Sneham (or “Tamil Sneham”, as we prefer to call it to distinguish it from others with similar names), is an organization to promote friendship among all people of common (Indian) cultural heritage and interest, even though it was originally conceived and organized to serve the Tamil community living in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

Some months ago, a group of friends felt the need for an informal organization to promote “fun and friendship” among members of the Tamil community of Tampa. They wanted to be proactive in organizing activities that would bring Tamil families together to form friendships and do things they enjoy as a group. As its first activity, Sneham organized a family picnic in Lettuce Lake Park on February 19, 2007. It was attended by more than 100 people and provided many new families with an opportunity to get to know others living in Tampa. It was a “fun” experience for all age groups.

Following the picnic, Sneham screened the super-hit movie “Mozhi” on March 24, 2007

To encourage our own local aspiring musicians to perform in public, Sneham organized a music group, called “raagamSneham”, and conducted a Music Concert on May 19, 2007. It was an outstanding success that helped us discover the musically-talented young people who were willing to sacrifice their time and resources to develop and exhibit their skills to entertain and enthrall the audience. RaagamSneham is an important component of Sneham.

To meet the recreational and athletic needs of our young professionals, Sneham organized a group, called “sportsSneham”, consisting of mostly young people willing to participate in sports and games organized by the organization on a regular basis. As an initial step, sportsSneham is conducting volleyball games every Sunday mornings at Lettuce Lake Park. We also organize an annual volleyball tournament for local teams.

Participation in our volleyball games has resulted in many new friendships and social activities for our sportsmen families. We plan to organize similar clubs for Tennis, Cricket, and interest is growing among the volleyball families to start a women’s volleyball team