A Event of its Kind: MSSO Silver Jubilee

Maharashtra Seva Samiti Organization (MSSO) celebrated 25 years of development work 'bridging miles and minds' between Indo-Canadians and the less fortunate in India. In its 25-year history, MSSO has contributed more than four million dollars to projects in India through matching funds from both the federal and provincial governments of Canada. MSSO has worked with destitute women, the physically and mentally challenged, orphans, youth, tribal people, persons afflicted with leprosy, slum dwellers, nomadic communities, deserving but financially deprived students, innocent prison inmates, oppressed farmers, earthquake victims and many others.

The man who is at the forefront of such activity is Dr. Jagannat Wani, an Indo-Canadian who feels a sense of gratitude towards the tutoring he received in India which served as a major stepping stone to the comfortable lifestyle in Canada that he and many like himself enjoy. Back in 1984, a group of Indo-Canadians felt the need to repay India for its contribution to their lives. This is how MSSO came to be says Dr. Wani.

What drew me to Dr. Wani's projects over other good projects I could have chosen to work for at the time was the sound development philosophy underlying MSSO work. I feel this philosophy is encapsulated in verse written by an Australian Aboriginal woman:

If you have come to help me
You are wasting your time
But
If you have come
Because your liberation is bound up with mine;
Then let us work
Together.

MSSO does not presume to interpret what is good for people; they decide that; MSSO facilitates carrying out this work says Eilish Hiebert who serves as secretary of the MSSO Board.

After surveying several MSSO projects on behalf of Canadian government funders, Eilish Hiebert was compelled to become more involved with MSSO projects and later joined the MSSO board. Eilish Hiebert alongside Jivan Kayande, Vice-president, Chandrakant D Lad, Treasurer, and Jagannath Wani, founder and President, all form part of the board.

MSSO's silver jubilee event was held at the University of Calgary campus, where around 150 guests witnessed the passionate presentations of several social workers who came all the way from India to report on the success of their MSSO projects. Aparna Velankar, editor of Lokmat newspapers, presented a video documentary, Bridging Miles and Minds, on the work of MSSO and Anuradha Naimpally, with her daughter, danced an eclectic Bharatnatyam performance.

The event also coincided with Dr. Jagannath Wani's 75th birthday and 50th wedding anniversary with his wife, Kamalini. Dr. Wani is an emeritus professor of statistics and actuarial science at the University of Calgary who seems to touch the lives of everyone he meets. His friends and family describe him as a man abounding with energy, relentlessly fixed on making the world a better place. He recently released his memoir in Marathi, and plans on having the English version released by the end of the year. All funds raised through the sale of his book will be donated to MSSO.