Annual General Meeting- 2011-08-07
Minutes
The Annual General Meeting of Mithuruwela for the year 2011 was held at 49A Peterson Lane, Colombo 6. The meeting commenced at 10 am. 17 members were present at the meeting.
Excuses: Jameela Uduman, Shirley Deen, Suneetha Ranatunge
Address of Welcome:
Mr S Thalayasingham,Chairperson, Mithuruwela welcomed all members present and thanked Dr H.S.Wanasinghe for his continued generosity towards Mithuruwela and especially for providing his home as the venue for the AGM. He then requested the old members present to introduce themselves for the sake of the new members. Each member present made a self introduction.
The Chairman stated that although Mithuruwela was a small organization, it had conducted many activities during 2011 and thanked all the members for their continued support for Mithuruwela activities. He stated that he regretted to announce that Jameela Uduman had resigned her post as Secretary of the Management Circle and thanked Jameela for all her hard work and dedication. He also thanked Samira Shafraz for maintaining the Mithuruwela website and announced that Samira would not be able to continue after November. He asked for volunteers to help maintain the website.
New member Wathsala Kekulawala volunteered to help with the website.
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting- 2010
In the absence of Jameela Uduman, Secretary, Management Circle 2010, Mala Thalayasingham read out the Report which had been prepared by Jameela.
Surangani Ratwatte proposed that the Minutes be accepted. Sharona Naizer seconded the acceptance.
Report of Activities-2011
Ryhana Raheem read out the Report of Activities (other than Befriending) for 2011. She stated that in the period July 2010 (the date of the last AGM) to July 2011, numerous activities had been carried out.
• Publications: Mithuruwela had continued with its tradition of providing publications for the Medical Education Unit of the National Cancer Institute at Maharagama but this year had down-sized the number of publications as the NCI had already been provided with all that they needed. In 2011, a Sinhala poster giving general information on cancer had been printed (5000 copies). The Tamil version was yet to be published.
• The Schools Programme: It had not been possible to carry out this programme during 2011 because although a number of schools had been contacted and dates set for individual programmes, the schools in question had requested postponement due to heavy schedules of work for the first term. The schools were to be contacted again for new dates in the latter part of 2011.
• Workshops: During the year, 2 Workshops on Befriending were conducted by Mithuruwela. One was at the invitation of the Director, Cancer Control and Prevention Unit (CCPU) of the Ministry of Health for doctors and nurses at the Unit. This was conducted at the CCPU Early Detection Clinic at Narahenpita on 16th December 2010 by Nalini Ellawala, Director,’ Mel Medura’ and Jameela Uduman (Mithuruwela). The CCPU has requested assistance from Mithurwela to provide befriending services at the Narahenpita Clinic.
The other Workshop was for the training of new volunteers for Mithuruwela Befriending activities and was conducted by Nalini Ellawala in May 2011.
• Talks & Lectures: Mithuruwela members supported other cancer and medical organizations by being among the speakers at key events. In October 2010, Ryhana Raheem addressed participants on the topic “Surviving Cancer” at a symposium held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo to mark World Breast Cancer Day. Mrs S Rajapakse, wife of President Mahinda Rajapakse was the Chief Guest at this symposium organized by the CCPU and attended by members of the medical profession, other NGOs such as the Rotary Club and the general public.
In June 2011, Mala Thalayasingham spoke on “The experiences of a cancer survivor” at the Sri Lanka Medical Association Annual Research Sessions. Mala’s presentation was one of the items in the session on “Palliative Care’, chaired by Dr Jayatilleke, former Director of the NCI, Maharagama.
• Fund Raisers: In March 2011, Mithuruwela conducted its popular Fund-Raiser, the Jumble Sale at St Paul’s Church premises in Bambalapitiya, Colombo 4.A sum of Rs 261090 was collected from the sale.
In June 2011, a second Fund-Raiser, a Benefit Show featuring the film ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ was held at the Majestic Theatre in Colombo. This too proved to be a great success and a sum of Rs 271,500 was collected. Both Fund- Raisers were in aid of the Mithuruwela Medical Fund, created to assist needy patients by supporting their medical needs.
• Other: Among other activities conducted by Mithuruwela was the Christmas party for inmates of the ‘Shanthi Nivasa’ home in December 2010. Ms L Schaffter, the founder of ‘Shanthi Nivasa’ attended the party which proved to be very popular.
In March 2011,many Mithuruwela members participated in the Cancer Walk, organized by the Sri Lanka Cancer Society to raise funds for their hospice’ Shanthi Sevana’ and other activities.
Befriending
Sharona Naizer then presented the report on Befriending activities.
During the discussion on these reports, members stated that they had not been aware of the training workshop. Mala explained that this was solely for new members who wished to become volunteer Befrienders. It was however decided that all members would be informed by email of future workshops as this would help volunteers to re-train themselves.
Presentation of Accounts
Lal Kathirgamathamby, Treasurer presented the accounts for the financial year 2009/2010. It was noted that Mithuruwela had managed to achieve the target sum of Rs 1 million during the year in question, thanks to the generosity of its well-wishers and the dedication and hard work of the volunteers who helped with fund-raising activities.
Lal explained that there were two main funds- the General Fund for publications and other such activities and the Medical Fund. He set out details of the administration of the Medical Fund and how drugs etc were bought and paid for. The Chairperson informed the members that Indunil, Surangani and Sharona were the key figures in administering the Medical Fund and thanked them for the work they did in liaising with the hospital, the volunteers and the patients. He also thanked Lal for his meticulous care and stringent rules for maintaining proper accounting procedures with regard to the Mithuruwela accounts.
Acceptance of the Accounts was proposed by Ryhana and seconded by Mirani.
Planning for the future
This was a member forum conducted at the AGM held in lieu of an address by an invited speaker. The forum was a very lively event and members proposed a number of new strategies to consolidate present activities as well as new activities that Mithurwela could engage in. These included the following:
Supporting Befriending: Members commented that current arrangements for Befriending do not seem to support ease of friendship and sharing of experiences. It was therefore proposed that volunteer Befrienders should meet regularly to share their experiences and renew friendships.
Surngani volunteered to organize Quarterly meetings so that Befrienders could meet and share experiences.
Initiating Regional Befriending: May stated that a doctor at the NCI had suggested that Mithuruwela provide Befriending at the Anuradhapura hospital. Members present felt this was a good idea but that a one-off visit would not be of much benefit. It was therefore decided that steps would be taken to initiate a visit to the Anuradhapura Hospital while at the same time creating links with local residents who could carry out Befriending in the region.
May volunteered to organize the visit to Anuradhapura.
Ryhana volunteered to contact Sri Lanka Sumithrayo and to find out if their branches in the regions could assist with Befriending.
Visiting the Centre at Hanwella: Members inquired as to whether Dr Anushyanthan’s request (at last year’s AGM) that Mithuruwela visit Hanwella had been followed up. It transpired that this request had not been attended to.
Mirani volunteered to organize the visit to the Hanwella Centre.
Fund Raising: Thalay stated that although Mithuruwela now had a fair amount of funds, having more resources would help the organization to provide more assistance to cancer patients and care-givers. The members agreed that Fund raising should be intensified.
Rohana (new member) agreed to initiate new fund-raising efforts. Mala,Indunil and Wathsala volunteered to help Rohana.
Any Other Business
As here was no other business, the meeting concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Ryhana.
Vote of Thanks
On behalf of Mithuruwela ,Ryhana thanked Dr Shelton Wanasinghe for his continued enthusiasm for Mithuruwela’s development and once again offering his home to host the AGM. She also expressed her gratitude to the Commercial Bank for their sponsorship of the Benefit Show ’The Pirates of the Caribbean’; to Unilevers for providing soup and beverages as refreshments during the show and to Mr Hemantha Welivita, Chairman HS Trading Ltd for gracing the occasion as Chief Guest and for his generous donation.
She thanked Dr Nilamani Paranagama, Dr Suraj Perera and staff at the CCPU for their support for Mithuruwela, especially for inviting members of Mithuruwela to make presentations at major events related to cancer care and prevention.
Thanks were also expressed to CCC House for permitting Mithuruwela volunteers to work with patients and care-givers at the transit home in Maharagama, to Mrs Lilani Schaffter and staff at ‘Shanthi Nivasa’ and to the Cancer Society of Sri Lanka and staff of ‘Shanthi Sevana’.
She also thanked Jameela, the outgoing Secretary to the Management Circle for her commitment, dedication and efficiency.
Members Indunil, Sharona and Surangani were thanked for coordinating work related to the Medical Fund and Befriending at Maharagama, Priya and Surangani for graciously permitting their homes to become collection centres for the Jumble Sale, and Mala and Thalay for their hospitality and generosity in hosting the monthly meetings of the Management Circle.
She also thanked members for their support, especially those who continue to give of their time and resources to Befriending, and Fund raising -to help Mithuruwela achieve its objectives of assisting cancer patients and care-givers throughout Sri Lanka.
The meeting ended at 11.30 am.
Ryhana Raheem, Secretary/Management Circle
posted by Mithuruwela Cancer Support Network @ 6:16 PM
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