Greater Richmond Bengali Association is a non profit, tax exempt 501(c)(3), cultural and educational organization, incorporated with the State of Virginia representing the Bengali community in the central Virginia area. Over ninety percent of all Bengalis from India living in and around Richmond are members of the association. It evolved out of the informal group of Richmond area’s Bengali community. Since the early eighties when a handful of Bengali families with young children started settling in the area, they felt the need to continue their religion and show their own culture and heritage, with which they all grew up in India, to their children who were being brought up in a very different culture and society in the United States.