Sewa International announced on March 12th that its Executive Director of the Chapter Kavita Tewary in Houston, Texas, received the CAIT Women Entrepreneurship Award on International Women’s Day.
The Confederation of All India Traders is the leading body of the Indian business community, representing more than 80 million companies through more than 40,000 trade associations.
In announcing the award, CAIT stated that they “wanted to honor some of the most credible women entrepreneurs who have excelled in their respective fraternity through outstanding and exceptional work,” according to a press release.
“This award from CAIT strengthens my commitment to underserved people. However, this journey of selfless service is not mine, and I thank all of my friends and colleagues at Sewa International for their support and dedication to serving humanity, “Tewary said in a statement.
Tewary joined the Houston chapter of Sewa International as a volunteer in 2012 and worked in the refugee communities, particularly the Hindu refugees from Bhutan in the greater Houston area.
The American Indian officially joined the Sewa team as a program coordinator in 2014. Tewary worked with women in the refugee community and created a sewing project to help them earn an income. She also started taking computer training courses and tailoring courses. She has been Managing Director of Sewas Houston Chapter since 2017.
To support students in the refugee population, she started a new program called ASPIRE Tutorials. That was in early 2013, and the program expanded to include three refugee and immigrant resettlement communities that are now serving over 200 students.
Her work was recognized by the Texas Association of School Board in 2020. In addition to advocating education in Houston, Kavita has continued to serve Sewa International chapters with similar programs in California, Georgia, and Ohio. Tewary also received the Houston Public School Parents Award for service, Bio Notes.
Tewary is currently in the planning phase of a project to vaccinate vulnerable populations in her community, particularly those with a migrant and refugee background.
Tewary is a trained pharmaceutical chemist at Lucknow University in India and has experience in drug research. She currently resides in Houston with husband Ashish Tewary and their two grown children.
