From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, May 24:The premier and one of the oldest Konkani Catholic Association (KCA) of Bengaluru is all set to celebrate its golden jubilee at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall on June 5.

The golden jubilee function of KCA will be presided over by the Archbishop of Bangalore, Most Rev Dr Bernard Moras with NRI Entrepreneur Ronald Colaco, Chairman of International Federation of Christians Associations as the Chief Guest, J R Lobo, MLA, Ivan D’Souza, MLC, and Roy Castelino, Chairman of Karnataka State Konkani Sahitya Academy, as the Guests of Honour.

A Konkani play, Santhanam, by Konkani play-writer and director, Arun Raj Rodrigues, will be an added attraction of the golden jubilee function.

KCA, started in 1966 at Mathikere in Bengaluru, by a few social service minded individuals, mostly of Mangalorean origin, as a forum to foster unity and preserve Konkani culture and provide educational and medical assistance to the needy has come a long way since its humble beginning.

One of the few registered Konkani Associations in Bengaluru, KCA has spread its roots far and wide besides engaging itself in social cultural activities. It has over 750 life members, comprising mostly heads of families. The real membership could be around 3250 if spouses, children, parents and siblings are taken into account, says the present President Paul Sunil Rego.

Though a majority of the members have settled down in the City and have established themselves in various walks of life, KCA boasts of sizeable number of members in different parts of Karnataka and India besides USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, Switzerland and Gulf countries.

Registered Association with Own Building

KCA is one of the few Associations of Konkani Catholics to have its own building, Konkan Bhavan, which was initiated by its founding member Late A V Rego (who donated the land for this building) and assisted by Late A C L Peris. The ground floor of the building was completed within a year of its starting and formally opened in 1981.

The entire two-storied structure with a spacious hall on the first floor is capable of comfortably seating 100 persons and useful for holding small meetings and social functions. The second floor, having separate rooms providing hostel facilities for youngsters was also built by Late A V Rego and with support from Late O J Colaco and H M Fernandes and completed in 1989. The ground floor has a spacious kitchen, wash room besides provision for dining facilities.

A notable feature of KCA is its immense contribution in carrying out social service activities like helping the poor and deserving students with scholarships and educational assistance, medical aid in cash and kind to the sick and ailing persons.
The Konkan Bhavan has provided hostel accommodation to around 1,500 needy boys, who had come to Bangalore from their native places in search of jobs and educational training, so far.

"KCA spends around Rs 2 lakh to provide scholarships to the poor children and assistance to the poorer sections of the society towards medical needs. To run this project we have collected funds from various sources and philanthropists,’’ explained Rego, adding: ``We want to extend this benefit to more needy members of the society irrespective of their caste, creed or colour, subject to the availability of funds.’’

Appeal for Generous Donations

"With a large number of our members comfortably settled in life in India and abroad, especially many of the past hostel inmates in Konkan Bhavan, we wish to sincerely appeal to all our well-wishers, philanthropic donors and others to generously contribute so that we are able to increase the corpus of funds to carry out our social service activities on a bigger scale,’’ said Rego.

"Being a registered Association, KCA duly audits its accounts and also submits them to the authorities concerned every year. Needless to say, all our activities are conducted in a transparent manner and the grant of funds to the needy persons is done with due scrutiny,’’ he adds. The Association is also granted with an exemption on income tax under 80G for donations received

The following are the past presidents of KCA with their tenure mentioned in brackets:

Late H A Patrao (1966-1971), Late A C L Peris (1971-1982), Late Simon Furtado (1982-83), Jacob Crasta (1983-86), Late O J Colaco (1986-91), Late A V Rego (191-92/1996-98), Henry J Pinto (1992-94/1998-99), David Fernandes (1994-96/1999-2000/2009-11), Late J B D’Mello (2000-01), Irene Sequeira (2001-02), Gerald D’Souza (2002-04), Charles Gomes (2004-07), Peter Anil Rego (2007-09), Naveen D’Souza (2011-13) and Paul Sunil Rego (from 2013).