July 30 : CODP ® Mangalore, Manos Unidas Spain and Permannur Parish jointly organized an awareness programme on health and distributed relief materials to members of all the religions of Ullal Hoige area people at Ullal Hoige on July 27th and 28th, 2020.
Mangaluru Diocese Bishop Dr Peter Paul Saldanha, Permannur Church parish priest Fr Dr J B Saldanha, CODP Director Fr Oswald Monteiro, CODP designated Director Fr Vincent D Souza, Mangaluru City Corporation Corporator Veena Mangala, Ullal municipal councilor Veena D Souza, Demetrious D Souza, Sarita D Souza, Cynthia D Souza, Lavina Ferrao ward representatives and former president of the Permannur parish pastoral council Melwin C D Souza were present on the dais.
Fr Oswald Monteiro welcomed the gathering. He said that CODP is a service oriented Catholic Charitable organization that has distributed more than 3,500 food kits to poor families during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He said that the organization always works for the development of the poor and needy people of Dakshina Kannada. It has also been collecting donations and uses the same for relief work. It provides necessary information and creates awareness on health.
Fr Dr J B Saldanha said that each individual should take care of his/her health and follow the guidelines given by government and doctors. He also thanked CODP for arranging the awareness programme and also for providing food and heath kits to his parishioners at Permannur.
Bishop Dr Peter Paul Saldanha said that the agency ‘Manos Unidas’ means an organization of poor working women in Spain who come together and donate a part of their income earned to us. The women there collect donations voluntarily and send it for the development of poor and needy people. We too should be the generous hands that support others in our community. God Almighty will help us hundred times and reward us generously.
Veena Mangala said that people should take precautions and be aware on COVID-19 and called on the people to obtain facilities available from the government for health issues.
CODP Project manager Ms Lenet Gonsalves said that it is possible to stay away from coronavirus by taking health precautions. CODP Sparsha Project Coordinator Ms Shilpa D Souza and CODP Animator Ms Pushpaveni explained about cancer, its prevention, obtaining treatment for it in the initial stages by taking nutritious food and exercise which provided some confidence to the people to fight cancer.
More than 350 poor people were provided with food and health kits in two days with six programs.
Molly Silvi Monteiro compered the programme.
