Victoria

President	Prof David Runia	fovvpresident@gmail.com
Vice President	Prof Nathan Grills
Secretary	Mrs Viviane Harangozo	fovvsecretary@gmail.com
Treasurer	Mr Ken Gilbertson	fovvtreasurer@gmail.com
Publicity Officer	Mr Neil Champion

 

FRIENDS OF VELLORE VICTORIA

Annual General Meeting 2024

 

President’s Report

 

I am pleased to report on the activities of the Victorian branch of the Friends of Vellore in the year since the last AGM in November 2023. In this year the committee and associated friends have faithfully endeavoured to fulfil their mission to spread the good news about the work of the CMC in Vellore and to raise funds to support that work, particularly as it is carried out among the disadvantaged and destitute people of southern India.

         At that AGM all the members of the Committee were re-elected. In the new year the customary lunch was held at the Kooyong Tennis Club, organized by Mr Jim Richardson. The photo below shows that it was attended by the entire committee.

From left to right: David Price, Jim Richardson, David Runia, Viviane Harangozo, Sunil Datta,
Nathan Grills, Nancy Cox, Colin Honey, Ken Gilbertson, Neil Champion

 

Since then, the committee has met on three occasions, twice in hybrid meetings via zoom and physical presence at the secretary’s home, the other occasion in person at Pilgrim College, Parkville, preceded by lunch. In addition, there has been much informal contact regarding activities and projects. Communication with the list of friends has been undertaken by Neil Champion, using the method of sending emails via mailchimp, with links to various kinds of information about the CMC and the AVB. Neil has also been working together Shuai Shao on a project to give talks about the CMC in schools and church gatherings.

         As in previous years, the branch organized an annual giving appeal in June, the last month of the financial year. Once again, an attractive brochure was designed, informing our friends about the three projects that we were this year recommending for special consideration. These included two projects which have been regularly supported in previous years, The Development Department Emergency Fund for patient support, and The Allied Health Scholarship Project in the area of education. New this year was the goal of raising funds for the project Equipping community disability workers, which will enable trained rehabilitation workers to go back to their villages in rural and needy areas to care and advocate for people with disability. The appeal also included the General support fund of the AVB as a destination for donations.

         Response to the campaign was again most heartening. Generous donations large and small were received, amounting to about $18,426. But when extra donations and residual funds from the previous year were added, it was possible, as the financial accounts show, to send $28,096 to the Australian Vellore Board for transfer (ultimately) to India—a most creditable result. This leaves only $4000 in kitty at present. This low amount should be taken as encouragement to redouble our fund-raising efforts in the coming year! Sincere thanks are owed to our treasurer, Ken Gilbertson, who processed the donations of the campaign and kept track of all our finances with his usual diligence and accuracy.

         The branch continued its fruitful collaboration with the University of Melbourne, spearheaded by committee member Nathan Grills, who now holds the portfolio of Academic Director India Engagement in the Faculty of Health Sciences. On 23 February 2024 various committee members attended a lunch at the University in honour of Prof Beena Koshy, at present Deputy Director of Finance, who impressed us greatly. We also continue to interact with PhD students (often quite senior staff members at the CMC) who have benefited from the Gault Travelling Scholarship for their travel costs to Melbourne. In October the Principal of the CMC, Dr Solomon Sathishkumar paid a visit to the University as part of a short trip to Australia. Nathan Grills organized a reception dinner for him as a combined event of the University and the FOVV. The event was very well attended. I was pleased that I had an opportunity to speak about the work of the Friends and the Gault Travelling Scholarship. It was heartening that about a dozen alumni attended. Our warmest thanks to Nathan and Neil Champion for all the work they did in organizing this dinner.

         Early in the year our esteemed patron David Price suffered a severe medical setback which has resulted in long periods in hospital and ongoing treatment whilst in special care. More recently our Vice-President Rev Colin Honey, who has been connected with the FOV for four decades (including the role of President of the WA branch) resigned from his role. These developments, plus the fact that, apart from the dinner with the university, no public events have taken place this year, makes it all the more important that we consider future paths for our branch. I am delighted that our committee will be reinforced by three new members, two of whom are CMC alumni. A vital task will be to see how we can intensify our friend-raising activities, by means of events and other means. A real handicap is far-flung locations of many of our friends. Up to now events have generally been planned in inner city locations, as was the case for the recent dinner. But many friends, and in particular alumni who have settled in our state, live outside this area. I am confident that more alumni will want to join our group if and when we can reach them. In other branches alumni have taken a leading role much more than in the FOVV.

         It remains to me to thank the committee for their commitment to the work of the friends and for their enthusiastic participation in the activities outlined above. Special thanks must go to our secretary Viviane Harangozo for all the work she does in organizing and coordinating our meetings and other gatherings, and to Neil Champion for his tireless work in looking after our communications. We also thank the Australian Vellore Board, and in particular its present and past presidents Mahiban Thomas and Stephen Aseervatham, for its invaluable encouragement and facilitation of donations. The FOVV considers it a great privilege to be involved in gathering support for an institution that never fails to inspire, as it faithfully carries out its mission of providing medical services in Christ’s name in the fast-changing world of southern India.

 

David Runia, President