Welcome to MOAI)(NYC

"MoaiNYC has been founded by like-minded friends in New York City since 2014.  It is inspired by the Japanese social support term "Moai" from Okinawa, Japan.  This website is instituted after over 5 years of Moai based friendships and social support group in NYC.  This is not a formal organization or a charity club.  The membership of this group is from organically developed friendships of like minded individuals.  The only transaction in MoaiNYC is true unconditional friendships and support for each other in good and bad times.  We believe in developing this community of friendships that will last generations to come, as we enrich our lives with quality offline time spent with true friends.  The friends at MoaiNYC are a very international group of individuals from different walks of life that call NYC our home, but are like minded by our thoughts, actions, habits and character rather than by any boundaries of race, religion, ethnicity, income or any other society based status.  By nurturing this group and its developing friendships with time, MoaiNYC has taken a life of its own.  These naturally developed deeper connections of friendships of larger group of individuals, is rather rare to find in a fast paced city such as NYC,  the city that never sleeps!.  Where often friends turn out to be in reality mere activity buddies, or acquaintances with ulterior motives, where friendships can be fleeting or based on income, or the so called in-crowd party chasing or other statuses.  The city where there is never a shortage of parties, events and crowds of people ready to meet at any give time or day, where non-stop "social peacocking" to attract attention & for "likes" on facebook or instagram is the norm of the hour, and where in-spite of hundreds of friends online its often a lonely place for the many folks.  Our offline Moai friend concept has expanded to become more of an informal strong social network that meets often, a cultural tradition with built-in companionship, where the type of connection is less relevant and all that matters is the bond the group shares.  If not for our MoaiNYC friends and family, NYC would be a much stressed and lonely place!.  And then there is also the added bonus to have research supporting how these types of social connections have a powerful impact on our well-being, not that we needed that but good to know!  For the record, research (Lisa Berkman - Harvard & others) reveals individuals with meaningful social connections experience less stress, increase their happiness index by 15% percent and live longer with less incidence of chronic illnesses.  MoaiNYC friends hope to continue this legacy with our friends & family for many years to come.  We all need this mindfulness in friendships in NYC, perhaps more than anywhere else!  We hope this website will inspire others to initiate their own offline Moai groups and connections, that meet often in person and gift each other our priceless social time for a meaningful selfless and unconditional friendships, developing communities and leaving this legacy for years to come". - Sireen Gopal (Co founder)  Moais(模合 Mo-ai) originally termed are social support groups that form in order to provide varying support from social, financial, health, or spiritual interests.  Moai means "meeting for a common purpose" in Japanese and originated from the social support groups in Okinawa, Japan.  The concept of Moais have gained contemporary attention due to the Blue Zone research popularized by Dan Buettner. According to research, Moais are considered one of the leading factors of the longevity of lifespan of the Okinawan people, making the region among the highest concentration of centenarians in the world (Wikipedia)