Visit of Fr. Stanny Jebamalai to Siddhpur
Fr. Stanny Jebamalai, the founder of Shakti, Songadh (A centre
for Legal Aid & Human Rights) had come on our request to visit
Siddhpur area. He is now the Secretary of Jesuit Social Action for the
South Asian countries. During his four-day visit to Siddhpur and the surrounding villages, he met some influential
people in order to begin the Social Awareness programme for the people of Siddhpur. He had
the aerial view of some villages and visited the land at Umru. We met Amrutlal
Patel, Lalabhai, Philip, Martin, Raju, Franklin Show, Alex, Nilam in Siddhpur,
Vadnagar, Palanpur consequently. He was happy to know that Amrutlal had good
contacts in these areas and asked Fr.
Xavier James to seek his help and begin to hold meetings with the leaders of
the villages. He also met the Catholics on the feast of Epiphany. He requested
them to support the priest in the new venture. On the third day we met the
Archbishop and Fr. Rocky to discuss about the observations. Fr. Stanny expressed that there is a vast
ignorance about the legal system in our country and it will be useful to involve
participation of
the youth and begin some social awareness programme. Archbishop Stanny said
that our presence will improve the standard in the legal and education system
and hence we need to continue in reaching out in our education and social
welfare ministry. The difficulty which was expressed was the infrastructure and
sustainability of the many centers. The Archbishop said that with this new
venture we can become the voice of
the voiceless. Our contribution to empowerment will be adding to the growth of
the people. Caritas also has undertaken such type of work in the social work
arena. Fr. Stanny added that with the presence of the school, many contacts
will be possible in the future for the work in the villages. He felt that
having a small rented place in the town will be the need of the time which will
help the youth, poor and the women. He agreed to give his support in matters of
guidance and would pay
a visit
in May 2013 once again. Overall I felt that this was a good visit to break new
ground in this new vicinity. At the end the Archbishop said that he would be in
touch with Fr. Xavier James with regard to taking the
matter forward. (15th Jan. 2013)
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