Intouch Solutions employee starts initiative to welcome immigrants

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Last February, Intouch Solutions employee Sunayana Dumala was faced with a living nightmare when her husband, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, was murdered as part of a hate crime in Olathe, Kansas. In the days following the incident, she publicly questioned the immigrant community’s place in the United States, asking “Do we belong?”

The Intouch community came together to condemn the crime and show support for Dumala and other immigrants. Nearly one year later, Dumala, in partnership with Intouch Solutions, a leading marketing agency serving the pharmaceutical industry, announced a response to this tragedy: “Forever Welcome,” a community on Facebook.

The goal of “Forever Welcome” is to help ensure that the United States is a safe place for current and future immigrant generations to pursue their dreams. The initiative, designed to generate empathy and understanding for people who immigrate to the United States by highlighting their critical contributions to our society, shares immigrants’ stories through social media storytelling. Forever Welcome is meant to spread a message of unity, and to answer those questioning that yes, we all belong, no matter where we were born.

In a video for BuzzFeed News, Dumala told viewers why she decided to start “Forever Welcome.” “If advocate is the right word, maybe that is what is making me share my pain or journey, because I don’t want others to go through the same thing,” Dumala says.

Dumala brought the message of “Forever Welcome” to the State of the Union address as the guest of Kansas Representative Kevin Yoder.

Find out more about the initiative on Facebook.