REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF OGA MELBOURNE, 2019-2020
15 november 2020
Thank you all for attending our Annual General Meeting via zoom today. This is an extraordinary time calling for extraordinary ways to fulfil our obligations and commitments. In that respect, I feel privileged to have been your President this year. I want to thank you for your faith and support given to me and my committee this year to start and finish one of the most fruitful years in the 27year history of the OGA, Victoria. I say this because in these 12 months, we were plagued by COVID severely for 9 months. We had just 3 months of normal life as we knew it. In those 3 months, we have had two events – Christmas Carol Service and Koothu-in-a-teacup. We began and finished one of our best fundraising initiatives and enabled one of our old girls to start-up her own commercial venture on the back of our $20for’21. There is no doubt this OGA is capable of great things. About 10 years ago you pulled off one of the biggest projects to raise over A$40,000.00 towards the orphan sponsorship bringing in more than 100 sponsors. But this year, was extraordinary.
It ought to have been an year of impossibility. It is with humility I say, we had enough faith to make the impossible, possible. And that is because, we chose to honour our school. A school built for the purpose of God. A place where the fruits of God, lead to more than success – to fruitfulness. Where even when the branches are cut back, pruned, burnt and thrown away, more fruits, better and more beautiful, are harvested in plenty year after year. I am ever so grateful to all of you for willingly opening your hearts and generously contributing to $20 for ’21.
This year, was also one of the first years where we have been able to communicate with the membership on a monthly basis, giving updates on the projects and pause to give thanks and praise to those women leaders of Chundikuli whose sacrifices and wisdom have given form, purpose and meaning to our lives. I hope you found the WhatsApp messages relevant and newsworthy. I have had some positive feedback but none, negative. I welcome your feedback, whether positive or negative so that we can improve our communication.
CHRISTMAS & CAROL SERVICE: We had our annual Chundikuli OGA-St. John’s OBA carol service on the 1st of December last year at St. Stephen’s and St. Mary’s Anglican church in Mt. Waverley. It was well attended. My grateful thanks to Sharmila Kapadia and Mano Jeyasingam for taking charge of the English and Thamil choirs. It is not an easy task to put together a good community choir but with the dedication and help of the OGA and OBA committees, especially Yogini Gnanaratnam, our Secretary who meticulously sees to every detail to the organization of the event, we pulled off an enjoyable worship service. Special mention must be made of Sumi Balthazar and Anoji Rajasingham for their assistance with the children’s choir. I am grateful to all those who joined the choir, attended practices, contributed towards the tea and gave a helping hand in the kitchen.
Koothu-in-a-teacup: We were very fortunate to have brought forward our koothu-in-a-teacup to February this year. By this, we beat the COVID restrictions and lock-down. As always this was one of the most joyous afternoons. Mrs. Champion led the games and the committee laid out a high tea that was most delicious and beautiful. I want to thank everyone of the committee members, Soundari Kuttithamby, Yogini Gnanaratnam, Dushy Anandarajan, Theivika Devarajah, Daisy Ratnarajah, Sumangala Niroshan and Ahila Pandithan and our actors cum comedians Shirani Shantha and Shanthini Chandrakumar for your generosity and kindness to give the Old girls of Melbourne a memorable afternoon.
$20 for ’21:
On the appeal of the Principal for financial contributions towards various events for the 125th anniversary, we came up with a fundraising initiative which was based on members donating $20 each month for 12 months, as a thank offering or in praise of the personalities who have served the school for the upliftment of our lives and others. We saw this as a journey where each month we pause to remember, thank and acknowledge the blessing.
We launched this initiative on the 16th of February, at our annual Koothu-in-a-teacup. Out of the 57 members at the event, xxx old girls pledged to contribute towards $20 for ’21.
To date, we have collected - $12,610.00
Monthly and fortnightly remittances to come: $ 1520.00
Commitment from SPRING FORWARD to come: $600.00
TOTAL FUNDS PROJECTED TO BE RAISED FROM $20 FOR ’21: $ 15,000.00
My sincere thank you to all for honouring your pledges. You didn’t back-off fearing COVID would affect your financial situation. Despite this big uncertainty, you persevered and kept your commitment to your school. For this I am very grateful to you. I am sure, this gift of ours will be multiplied by millions of rupees and the outcome will be a lasting legacy of genuine value for Chundikuli for decades.
Given that COVID conditions will not permit the school to execute the 125th year events according to the plans made in 2019, on discussions with the Principal, she has advised, that there are 5 or more key development projects that will be placed for funding in 2021. One of them being, digitisation and modernisation of the school library. Our $15,000.00 could be the seed funding to begin the scoping, planning and drafting the blueprint for the library project. Let’s seek God’s mighty hand to be over this initiative and may this be a testament to His glory.
I am immensely proud of Vythekee Pragash’s project SPRING FORWARD – an initiative to raise funds for $20 for ’21 through the sale of flowering plants, vegetable patches and landscape architecture consultancy. This has brought out the hidden talent and knowledge of horticulture and landscape architechure of one of our own girls. Vythekee’s objective was to honour her commitment of $240 towards $20 for ‘21, but she has informed us she will be contributing $600 towards $20for’21. Thank you very much Vythekee. You have our love and blessings as you take this initiative to become a business venture into the future. May God’s blessings on your venture be abundant. May your perseverance and faith be richly rewarded.
SCHOOL NEWS:
About the results: Chundikuli produced one of the best Advanced Level results this year. 39 of the 143 who sat for the exam qualified to proceed to University. 5 students got through to Medicine. 7 out of 14 (50%), who were presented from the Maths stream, entered for a mixture of Engineering, physical science, quantity surveying, mineral resource and technology, ICT and other physical science streams. If at all, it is the Commerce and Arts streams where are percentages are in the range of 19.5% to University that one may see as an area for improvement. Our congratulations to the students, staff and the Principal for a fantastic performance.
There have been some concerns from some old girls, as to the academic performance of the school largely coming from the overall results of Northern Province I would think. This is also due to lack of adequate information for the old girls to make good judgements. Now, with the relaunch of the school website, you will be able to go directly to the website and find the results under the tab, OUR COLLEGE and then proceed to ADVANCED LEVEL.
When we compare CGC with other schools such as Vembadi or Hindu Ladies, let us always keep in mind:
- The numbers presented for Advanced Level, O/Level or Grade 5 scholarships are always higher for them than for CGC
- And importantly, the purpose of our schools is different. Vembadi is a national school which takes in only the creme of scholars. You already must be good to go to Vembadi. Whereas Chundikuli is a Church Missionary Society school whose objectives are for Christian values education. The primary criteria for selection are faith, children of old girls and then others. In being a Christian school, CGC takes in children of varied and with differently abled learning abilities. While academic achievements are a given, holistic growth is the key driver behind the education at CGC.
SCHOOL UNDER COVID NORMAL: It’s been a case of stops and starts since March this year. Last week, the school resumed online classes for Grades 1 to A/L. The girls are scheduled to return to school by the 23rd of November. This is indeed a strange situation because the school in normal times, would have been preparing for end of term and Christmas holidays at this time.
DEVELOPMENT OFFICER FOR SJC-CGC: Chundikuli and St. John’s are set to appoint a Development Officer for the first time. This role is to lead, and project manage the long-term sustainable funding needs of both schools. Working under the purview of the Principals, this function is aimed to support and facilitate identification of long-term development projects, sources of funding, organization of fundraising projects, communication and advisory for Principals and the school.
ABOUT LONGTERM DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY: The civil war finished in 2009. Thanks to the leadership by the Principals, Chundikuli has picked up the pieces and has moved forward to become once again one of the best schools in the North. 1636 students are on roll now. But there is much, much more to be done to catch up with even our own benchmark standards of pre-war 1980’s. AND, at the same time, we have to take a giant leap to catch up with technology, arts, science and information.
WHAT IS OUR ROLE AS OLD GIRLS?
As old girls and key stakeholders of the school, this is our moment, to look higher, to dig deeper and stretch wider; To pull all of our talents, our skills, our expertise, our connections, networks and importantly our faith, and give Chundikuli, our beloved school, the very best of our support - physically, spiritually and financially – let us give her the best chance to dream big, to be bold and ambitious in her planning for the next 25, 50 or 100 years of her future.
THANK YOU: CLOSING
In closing, I want to thank my Secretary, Yogini Gnanaratnam, who has been the wind beneath my wings through this year. Infact, she was the wings too. I was seen to be fronting, but she has been the one seeing to every detail. She methodically drove the fundraising month after month to help us all achieve our goal. You may see my long WhatsApp messages, but that comes after Yogini giving me atleast 5 reminders. She is the real star of the show this year. Thank you is not enough. I owe you much, Chutta. Please know that you are indispensable. To my committee, thank you for your unquestioning support. I hope you feel as proud as I do, that we have proved that with faith, courage and God’s wisdom we can lead this old girls’ association to make the impossible, possible.
To all of you old girls, my sincere thanks once again. Much love and all God’s blessings for you. Keep well. Keep safe. And always, keep our beloved school in your hearts.
I will leave you to ponder on a Bible verse from Isaiah 6:8, often quoted at Chundikuli: