GBE gets first lady president
Alzira Pereira became the first lady President of Ganv Bhavancho Ekvott since its formation 16 years ago. Besides being a founder member, Alzira has also served the organisation as vice-president and also as general secretary in the past.
The new committee was elected at the general body that met at the meeting place at Cavorim on 5 th October 2024.
Others elected to the Managing Committee are: Vice Presidents: Darwin Cardoso and Basil Fernandes, General Secretary: Jose Coutinho, Joint Secretary: Esly Henriques and Anand Shirodkar as Treasurer.
The seven members elected to the Managing Committee are: Irene
Antao, Maria Mascarenhas, Vita Pereira, Sandeep Kalekar, Francis alias Hanchik Peixoto, Nina Coutinho and Serena Antao.
Earlier outgoing General Secretary Francis Coutinho presented his report enlisting activities undertaken since the last general body which was as follows:
The sick and elderly people in the twin villages were visited in February and in March the International Womens Day was observed in an unique manner with the ma,le members organising and serving the female members a sumptuous dinner at a special progamme held on that day.
The month of April was for promoting culture as a Konksni natak was staged for the villagers and khells were also staged.
May was a busy month as the annual picnic for members and ladainha was organised besides pre-monsoon cleaning of the market and surrounding areas. The annual fund raising activity of staging a tiatr was also done in this month.
While in August maintenance of the 500 trees planted was undertaken where the dead ones were replaced, in September, Hindu brethren from the village were visited on Ganesh Chaturthi.
In October, for the first time, the bridge across Kushawati River that was looking ugly was given a fresh coat of paint brightening the area.
Treasurer Anand Shirodmar presented the statement of accounts which due to problems with the account in HDFC bank was not audited.
The members deeply condoled the demise of two members –
Gidwan da Costa and Jose Antao abd observed one minute silence
in their honour. They noted that Gidwan was a very committed and active member while lamented that GBE could not benefit much from Jose as his stint with the organisation was very short.
“I shall work to the best of my abilities and urge members to work unitedly to keep the GBE flag flying high,” said Alzira in her acceptance speech.
Outgoing president John Fernandes while thanking members for their support said it was a privilege to work as president of the organisation whose work has been applauded by even a former minister.
The General Body ended with a light dinner prepared by Ciaran’s chef that included French fries, Norwegian salad, fried fish and fried chicken slivers. Earlier snacks and soup was also
served to those present.