Media Release

Mangaluru, Nov 18: The Catholic Association of South Kanara(CASK) is the oldest Catholic laity organization of South India, established in July 1914 and registered under the Societies Act in 1925. CASK has been publishing a monthly magazine titled 'Mangalore' since July 1927, one of the oldest monthly magazines in the country with the credit of uninterrupted publications for 90 years. The Bishop of Mangaluru Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza is the patron of CASK. CASK currently has over 1,250 members spread across India and several countries of the world.

The association organises the annual reunion of its members every November. The reunion is scheduled for Saturday November 19 at Lobo’s River-View Resort, Morgan’s Gate in the city at 6.30 pm. The annual reunion is a renowned spectacular show of unity and entertainment with songs, dances, music and skits in English and in Konkani. This year, CASK is collaborating with Mandd Sobhann for its entertainment programme. In addition, the reunion is aimed at fund-raising for the association's various welfare and social service activities targetting the marginalised sections of society.

Over the last 102 years, CASK has worked towards fulfilling the following objectives of the association.

1. Promote educational, economic, cultural, social and general welfare of the community.

2. Render assistance to the under-privileged and vulnerable groups of society, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or any other distinction.

3. Support the publication of books, periodicals and other literature authored by community members and also support preservation of Konkani language, literature, culture, heritage, arts, architecture, music and fine arts.

4. Act as the voice of the community in upholding its rights and privileges.

5. Interact, network and function as a link to unite the community spread across India and abroad

CASK organizes regular programmes for its members and also special programmes for students, youth, women and other target groups. CASK celebrated its centenary in 2013-2014 and successfully launched and implemented the following programmes in honor of the centenary, which are still continued :

• 'Promotion of blood, organ and whole body donations' in collaboration with Fr Muller Hospital. CASK is involved in creating awareness to encourage people to donate blood and pledge organs and organise eye and paediatric camps.
• 'Personality Development Programme' for school/college students. During the last 5 years, CASK has conducted this programme in 15 schools and 3 colleges in the city. Nearly 1,500 students have been the beneficiaries of this programme so far.
• 'CASK Education Fund' has been substantially scaled up in order to provide annual scholarship to deserving students irrespective of religion, caste, creed or other distinctions. Each year 100 scholarships are provided at Rs 5,000 each, primarily for purchase of books and extra coaching.
• 'Provision of safe drinking water in schools' - most rural schools, both government and private do not have purified drinking water facilities for its students. CASK installed safe drinking water units in 6 schools last year and plans to cover 6 more schools this year.
•  'Footwear for barefoot school-going children' – it is observed that approximately 20-25% of students attending rural schools and a few city schools come barefoot to school, thereby exposing the children to snake-bites and infections like hookworm. CASK provided footwear to 500 children of 4 schools last year and plans to cover more schools this year.

The above are some of the ongoing projects. CASK plans to scale-up the above projects and needs support from its members and well-wishers to do such impactful charitable work.

The present office-bearers of CASK are: R C Rodrigues – president; Nayana Fernandes – vice-president and convenor – CASK Reunion 2016; captain Vincent Pais – vice-president; Mario Saldanha - secretary; Dr Anand Pereira – joint secretary; Walter D’Sa – treasurer.