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Fr. V. M. Thomas |
Executive Director |
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February 2011 |
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Table of Contents |
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Director’s Message |
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Diamond Birthday |
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Staff Empowerment Programme |
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Youth Care |
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BASE |
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Department of Education |
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NGO Empowerment Programme |
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NRHM |
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DBIM |
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MDP |
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Outreach Programmes |
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Branch Reports |
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Form - Inform - Transform
Their (CARE Children)faces reflect joy, hope and confidence of a bright future which they are capable of creating with the help of adults who love and care, adults who are ready to nurture them with information and give them an all round formation which is their right as children.
We have launched into another year and as I look back to these two months, I find it has been very enriching, fulfilling and energizing in every aspect. To begin with, I like to recall the Industry exposure trip with the MBA students which has been elaborately described in this issue. For meit was a unique experience of enjoying the good will and support of people at various levels. We enjoyed the best hospitality wherever we halted. The visit to the best industries of the county and the opportunity our students had of interacting with the best and brilliant minds heading these industries was a unique experience. Our students, most of whom were going out of North East India for the first time were able to get new information, new insights which in a way will form their minds and shape their future career and ultimately help to engage themselves in transforming their own society and region after the example of the great minds they encountered during the exposure visit.
Another very enriching experience of these recent days and months was my close interaction with the deprived children we are educating at the CARE centres in Kokrajhar, Chirang and Udalguri districts. It is astonishing to see how eager these children are to acquire knowledge. Their faces reflect joy, hope and confidence of a bright future which they are capable of creating with the help of adults who love and care, adults who are ready to nurture them with information and give them an all round formation which is their right as children. Seeing them become smarter in studies, behaviour and discipline , my conviction grows stronger that children whatever be their background have the innate potential to bloom and become what they are meant to become, given the right type of education. I can almost visualize these children 10 or 20 years from now, leading their communities, and the larger society.
Inform – Form – Transform is a cyclic continuous process, essential at all levels to make the core values wheel function properly and produce a society characterised by equity, empathy, empowerment, effectiveness, expertise and excellence. Applying to our situation of reaching out to the young, information becomes a basic requirement - information that creates the awareness to become part of the knowledge society. This is followed by formative accompaniment of the young, which ought to result in the formation of integrally developed individuals capable to becoming agents of transformation in varying degrees.
I wish to thank all those who greeted me and made me feel so special on my 60th birthday. As I celebrate this milestone in my life which has been highlighted in this issue, I see distinctly God's hand guiding me at every stage of my life. I do not take it as a personal tribute, but as a tribute to God who has used me as his humble instrument to achieve his plan. The poem written by Arthur Hugh Clough "Say not the struggle naught availeth" aptly and meaningfully describes my years of life which had its own share of challenges and opportunities: "Say not the struggle naught availeth, the labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, and as things have been they remain"…………..And not by eastern windows only, when daylight comes, comes in the light; in front the sun climbs slow, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright".
Like the sun which rises in the eastern sky gradually brightens up the western horizons as well, our services through DBI which began in a humble way has multiplied in course of time enabling us to reach out to all categories of people. At this juncture, I feel grateful to God and to people who made my life fruitful and meaningful. Because of this, at 60 I still feel energized, enthused and open to God's plans and dreams especially for the people of North East India and more especially for children and youth who are unable to bloom as they ought, because they are deprived of life's opportunities. I pray that God walk with me into the future years of my life. |