Dubai: Canute D’Souza Elected as President of USWAS

Daijiworld Media Network – Dubai (SP)

Dubai, Dec 7: Canute D’souza, a Shirva parishioner residing in Sharjah, was unanimously elected as the president of USWAS (UAE’s St Mary’s Welfare Association Shirva), at a meeting held recently. D’souza, working in Dubai since the last several years, had functioned as an office bearer of USWAS committee during the last eight years. The election was conducted at a meeting held in Shezan Restaurant, Karama-Dubai on December 1.

USWAS, which came into existence at the fag end of December 2002, and has over 200 members at present, is driven with the motto, ‘Lend a hand not for self, but for each other’. It has been providing financial assistance to the needy for various purposes like education of financially backward children, medical aid, house construction, marriages of poor families and such other purposes.

The meeting began with a prayer by Paul Menezes at 9 am, which was followed by welcome address delivered by Oscar Rego, president. USWAS secretary, Roshan Menezes, read out the minutes of the previous meeting, proposed main agenda for the day, and conducted election of the USWAS office bearers for the year 2011. Outgoing president, Oscar Rego, thanked the outgoing members for their hard work and cooperation, and congratulated the newly elected president and his team, besides wishing them success in future endeavours.

Newly elected president, Canute D’souza, while thanking the committee, promised to take an innovative lead for taking up more initiatives towards working for the welfare of people from the community. The meeting came to an end with a thanksgiving prayer to patron Saude Mai.

The following office bearers were elected:

President – Canute D’souza, vice president – Ronald Correa, secretary – Nelson Castelino, Joint secretary – Vanita Menezes

Treasurer – Herald Mathias, Internal auditor – Paul Menezes, Cultural secretary – Denis Gomes, Assistant cultural secretary – Denis Mathias.

Cultural team: Claudy D’Leema, Prashant Sequeira, Lavina Menezes, Lavina Tauro and Josna Martis.

Media representatives: Manoj Menezes, Lesly Saldanha, Vilma Saldanha, and Loyal Pinto.

Sports team: Roshan Menezes, Francis Machado and Irene Quadros.

Advisory committee: Franky D’Souza, Sharan D’Souza, Ivan Mathias, Canute Mathias,



Vincent Corda, Oscar Rego and Maxim Ferrao.

Mario Mathias was chosen as USWAS representative at Shirva parish.

The new team is gearing up to organize upcoming event, ‘Shirva Porob – 2011’ proposed to be held on Friday February 11, 2011, at Sheraton Deira (Al Masah Ballroom), and to launch its own USWAS website, shortly.  ‘Shirva Porob’ is an annual event of the association, and the proceeds of this event will be used for the project of providing assistance in upgrading post graduation facilities of St Mary’s College Shirva.