In India Belgian priest Fr. Windey conferred with ‘Servant of the Poor’ Award

(April 21, 2006) : In India, a Belgian Catholic priest, Professor M.A. Windey, the operations Director of Village Reconstruction Organisation, was conferred on April 17^th, the first ‘Servant of the Poor’ Award by the Delhi based Confederation of 2000 NGOs of Rural India. The award was given by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to 85-year-old Belgian national, along with 11 other individuals and institutions, for his selfless service to the villagers of India during the past 60 years. Fr. Windey had a fall two weeks ago and is recovering in a mission hospital in the capital City of Hyderabad of Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Speaking from his hospital bed Fr. Windey said, “By conferring this honour I must thank you for the recognition given thereby to the thousands of young volunteers from Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, who have in the last 35 years joined me and extended the scope and the vision for the shared dream of making India the country of the best villages in the rising new democracies, not by attempting to ‘urbanise’ or ‘civilise’ them, but by revitalising and enabling them and to be what they are called to be.” Village Reconstruction Organisation works in seven states, including Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.