T

he Malayali community of the Newcastle region, which was small to start with, formed into an informal group almost half a decade ago. We met during Onam and Christmas, to cherish the sweet memories of our state, Kerala. The group gradually got bigger, attaining many milestones on the way.

The two major milestones that we attained in 2012 were adotping the name Humsam, a beautiful abbreviation of Hunter Malayali Samajam, and registering the association with the NSW Department of Fair Trading as an incorporated, not-for-profit association.

Humsam Inc. was set up as a meeting point for people from Kerala who have settled in the Newcastle and Greater Hunter regions of New South Wales, Australia. Humsam today has more than 500 members and is growing bigger every year. We regularly conduct cultural programmes, social networking events and sports activities.

The main aim of Humsam is to promote and encourage the development of the Malayali community within the Hunter area and surrounds, keeping it connected to our roots whilst exposing it to the wider community within NSW. Humsam also endeavours to undertake humanitarian activities for the benefit of the local community by engaging in fund-raising activities and helping support those important causes to alleviate financial or other burden without any regard or consideration to nationality, religion, faith or belief of the affected.

We encourage all Malayalis living in the Newcastle and Greater Hunter regions to join Humsam and thereby network with and support other members. We hope to promote unity among members, provide them a common platform to meet, be their common voice, support their social and cultural needs, and encourage cultural exchange between similar groups