Doha: Arthur Pais elected president of MCA

Media Release

Doha, Apr 28: Arthur Pais was elected the new president of Mangalore Cultural Association, Doha-Qatar during it 5th annual general body meeting held at Hotel Caravan on Thursday April 25. The annual meeting commenced with the MCA anthem seeking God’s Blessings on all the MCA members and their dedicated work towards their mother tongue, culture and the less fortunate brothers and sisters back home.

President Harry Lobo escorted the Advisory committee members Jerry Pinto, Joachim D’Souza, Felix Lobo and Wilfred Fernandes along with the vice president Jason Quadros and Secretary Benjamin Rebeiro to the dais.

Arthur Pais, Jason Quadros

Harry Lobo greeted all the advisory members with flowers and addressed the gathering with a heart full of gratitude towards the advisory and executive committee members for their continued support and dedicated efforts to take the Association to this great height in just 5 years. MCA was able to support 5,231 orphan children from various orphanages within the Mangalore and Udupi diocese, 1,389 children in their education needs, 36 families for various medical needs. A total of Rs 29,60,000 was distributed in these 5 years for all the above purposes.

The Association also had the blessings of their Patron Mother Theresa in all their work, as a gratitude for her intercession, beginning of this year MCA donated Rs 5 lacs to Mother Theresa’s Ashram in Calcutta. Harry Lobo said that for a single person it will not be possible but the MCA family together has done an incredible job and for sure all the members and their families will be blessed abundantly, through the prayers of all these supported families. The year 2012 will be marked in gold after the successful execution of the Grand finale of the Gulf Voice of Mangalore -3. The most successful Konkani reality show not only in Qatar but in any part of the Konkani world. The success of this is still spoken by all the participating countries and the audience who viewed it live throughout the world. He said only because of the joint efforts of the MCA family and our sponsors and well wishers it was possible to put up such a grand show in this huge budget. MCA has proved its caliber in all ways with this mega event and all the other programs it has been organizing so far and kept up to its main objective of promoting Konkani and supporting the less fortunate people of our society in this short period.

He also mentioned that this year on October 25 MCA will present the sensational Konkani super hit play “Aami Nathlyaa Vellar” by Daiji Rang Mandir members, which has already created waves in the Middle East and India.

MCA secretary Benjamin Rebeiro read the annual report with the full details of the entire program organized by MCA last year. In the absence of the treasurer Clement Saldanha who was on vacation, the vice president Jason Quadros read the finance report. Both the reports were well taken by the MCA members and accepted. All the 4 advisory committee members spoke out their feelings and concern towards the Association. They praised the efforts and the zeal of all the members towards achieving the goal for the Association. They assured their continuous support as was given so far which will continue in future too. Later the president Harry Lobo presented mementos as a token of appreciation and gratitude to all the advisory and the executive committee members and also to those who were mainly involved in the success of GVOM -3 .

It was later time to elect the new president for the future term. The election was conducted by advisory committee member Felix Lobo who is the main source behind this Association and responsible for its birth. He urged the members to select an able president who could carry forward the good work done by the current president. There were no nominations, but each member had to write a suitable name and drop it in the bowl. Every member was given the right to vote to select the president of their choice. Counting was done and Felix Lobo declared the name of the new president - Arthur Pais with majority votes. He said that the members had done a right choice. Jason Quadros was once again elected the vice president who got the next highest votes. Arthur Pais promised to continue the good work that was done so far in a more effective manner and requested the members support. Jason Quadros thanked everyone for selecting him again as vice president.

Harry Lobo once again thanked all members for their love and support given to him in all his tenure. With an appreciation for the remarkable president ship of Harry Lobo from the birth of MCA till date, for his effective leadership to bring forward this Association to a height which is unbelievable in terms of the work done in a span of only 5 years, the advisory committee members honored Harry Lobo with the honorary membership. He will always remain in the working committee and be a source of guidance to the future presidents and the committee members. Mable Fernandes, popular Konkani stage actress of yester years and wife of advisory committee member Wilfred Fernandes spoke few words of gratitude for the Past president Harry Lobo. A memento as a token of love and appreciation to Harry Lobo and the vice president Jason Quadros was presented by the advisory committee members.

The new president and vice president together will form the working committee and will announce their names very soon.

Benjamin Rebeiro proposed the vote of thanks. Wilson Mendonca prayed the grace before meals. Arthur Pais was the host for the whole evening. Dinner was served for all. A total of 134 members were present for the AGBM. The program concluded at 10 pm.