Warangal: Bala Vikasa founders Bala Theresa Singareddy Gingras and Andre Gingras jointly received the ‘Meritorious Service Decoration’ award from Governor General of Canada Ms Julie Payette. The honour comes in recognition of their dedicated social service which has impacted the lives of over four million rural poor covering 6,000 villages in India over the past four decades.
Mrs Bala Theresa Singareddy, of Reddypalem in Warangal, Telangana, married French Canadian Andre Gingras around 48 years back and moved to Canada. Around 40 years ago, the couple founded a charity organisation, SOPAR, in Canada and 26 years ago, Bala Vikasa in India.
Through these two organisations, they have played a role in maintaining 800 water plants, 6,500 borewells, 450 overhead tanks and got 840 tanks desilted. They managed to get 2,20,000 women including 15,000 widows empowered and supported 1,600 orphans for their education. Their efforts helped in improving 400 government schools while they promoted model villages and organic farming.
Bala Vikasa is known for innovating development initiatives and creating models for NGOs and governments. It also organises capacity-building programmes for development of professionals coming from 68 countries through its People Development Training Centre.
Bala Vikasa also established Bala Vikasa International Centre (BVIC) in Hyderabad to strengthen the CSR initiatives of corporate companies and also incubate social entrepreneurs from across the country. The community development projects of Bala Vikasa are expanded to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh.
Executive director of Bala Vikasa Shoury Reddy gave details of the award. Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, presented the Meritorious Service Decorations (Civil Division) to 42 recipients from various sectors across Canada at a ceremony at Rideau Hall, Ottawa.
The Governor General presented 19 Meritorious Service Crosses and 23 Meritorious Service Medals. Mrs Bala Theresa Gingras and Mr Andre received the Meritorious Service Cross category.
Bala Vikasa founders Bala Theresa Singareddy Gingras and Andre Gingras jointly received the ‘Meritorious Service Decoration’ award from Governor General of Canada Ms Julie Payette. The honour comes in recognition of their dedicated social service which has impacted the lives of over four million rural poor covering 6,000 villages in India over the past four decades.
Mrs Bala Theresa Singareddy, of Reddypalem in Warangal, Telangana, married French Canadian Andre Gingras around 48 years back and moved to Canada. Around 40 years ago, the couple founded a charity organisation, SOPAR, in Canada and 26 years ago, Bala Vikasa in India.
Through these two organisations, they have played a role in maintaining 800 water plants, 6,500 borewells, 450 overhead tanks and got 840 tanks desilted. They managed to get 2,20,000 women including 15,000 widows empowered and supported 1,600 orphans for their education. Their efforts helped in improving 400 government schools while they promoted model villages and organic farming. Bala Vikasa is known for innovating development initiatives and creating models for NGOs and governments. It also organises capacity-building programmes for development of professionals coming from 68 countries through its People Development Training Centre.
Bala Vikasa also established Bala Vikasa International Centre (BVIC) in Hyderabad to strengthen the CSR initiatives of corporate companies and also incubate social entrepreneurs from across the country. The community development projects of Bala Vikasa are expanded to Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Karnataka and Chhattisgarh. Executive director of Bala Vikasa Shoury Reddy gave details of the award.
Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, presented the Meritorious Service Decorations (Civil Division) to 42 recipients from various sectors across Canada at a ceremony at Rideau Hall, Ottawa. The Governor General presented 19 Meritorious Service Crosses and 23 Meritorious Service Medals. Mrs Bala Theresa Gingras and Mr Andre received the Meritorious Service Cross category.
The decorations were established to recognise the extraordinary people who make Canada proud. Their acts are often innovative, set an example or model for others to follow, or respond to a particular challenge faced by a community. “The best candidates are those who inspire others through their motivation to find solutions to specific and pressing needs or provide an important service to their community or country,” he said.
