A screenshot from the PGMA's website princegeorgemalayali.ca

By Tommy Osborne

Cultural organization

New non-profit organization formed in Prince George

Mar 1, 2024 | 6:18 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Malayali Association (PGMA) is our community’s newest non-profit organization. The Malayali community hails from the Kerala state of India, and the PGMA is looking forward to sharing its unique and vibrant culture with the Prince George community.

While Prince George has a large Indian population, the PGMA’s president Jose Lukose explains the Kerala community is relatively small, as he estimates there are around 20-25 Malayali families in Prince George, alongside 150-200 students and newcomers. However, the community is growing, and with that Lukose can’t wait to put on some events for Prince George.

“We have an event coming on April 27, which is a combination of Easter, Eid, and Vishu, which is a celebrated in Kerala and in India too. We have Onam coming in, which is a popular festival which is celebrated by Keralites and Malayalis, the people of Kerala. There is no religious foundation to that, we will all get together and are hosting that on September 14th,” said PGMA President Jose Lukose.

There are many smaller community events happening too, which you can find on its website, but beyond the events another big focus of the PGMA is helping newcomers to Prince George acclimate to the Canadian life.

“We are helping newcomers in our community, we can help them to pull all the resources together for them to achieve success in their settlement in Canada. We also help students by providing them career guidance classes,” Lukose said.

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The PGMA has been an unofficial organization for a decade, but now that it just recently became official Lukose is excited to not only host these big events, but find ways to give back to the community. An example of this could be a bottle drive to support an organization like the Salvation Army.

“We always welcome everyone in Prince George and surrounding areas. If you need any help, please reach out to us on our website,” Lukose said.

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