Seated at Jack’s Mansion, Colva, Alexander Fernandes takes us through his property showing us his guest house, his own residence and his dog house and in lighter vein he totals that to call himself an owner of three homes. He’s grateful for his stint as a banker for three years in Kuwait which made him economically stable and gave him so much to be proud of.
Alexander maintains great connect with Goans in the Gulf and has a huge network of Goans working in Saudi, Kuwait, Qatar, Dubai, Oman, Abu Dhabi and other parts of UAE. Alexander and his Colva United Center, Kuwait, an association of Goan Diaspora set up in the year 2013, had a vision to channelize NRI funds to create infrastructure in Goa and that’s when they mooted an idea of 50 percent funding to a infrastructure project in a village by the NR Association and the balance by the Goan government and submitted their proposal to the NRI Commission Director Ulhas D Kamat.
“We realized that Goans across the globe have a lot of money and the money has a lot of value after the exchange rate. The idea was to channelize these funds back home to fund infrastructure projects. That’s when the Colva United Center, Kuwait decided to fund a Colva Healthcenter with modernized facilities and that’s how we put a proposal to the government,” says Alexander.
Alexander explains that there was no law or rule in place for the government to accept private funding for an infrastructural project and hence the scheme was notified through cabinet approval to pave the way for a scheme like this invited more NRIs to fund government projects.
“Punjab that has a large population in Canada, Tamil Nadu which has a large number of settlers in the USA and Kerala that has a sizeable number of their residents in the UAE have similar schemes for example the Mera Pind Mera Punjab project wherein an NRI Punjabi can fund a project in his/her village in Punjab. On the same lines we proposed Mhozo Gaun Mhojem Goem in Goa,” he says.
Alexander explains that the ministry of NRI affairs came under Avertano Furtado and through the efforts of the local Colva MLA Caetano (Caitu) Silva, the scheme became a reality to pave the way for such projects and funding.
“GSIDC will carry out the approvals and planning for such projects, while 50% funding comes from the State. In the case of Colva, land was identified and acquired near the beach approved by the tourism department for a high standard Colva Healthcare center and after all approvals, the work for the same will commence shortly,” explains Alexander.
Alexander tells us that many Goans do not migrate from Goa to UK and Canada and many come home and want a scheme or initiative like this and projects like this to fund. The idea to architect a scheme like this was to get Goans to spend their money and CSR contributions within Goa itself and to tap the contributions from the diaspora.
“I myself came back after 36 years and never had a thought to leave Goa. I hope my son has a similar thought when he retires. We can spend our money on charity wherever we are but it would be wise to rather spend in our money in Goa itself,” asserts Alexander who regularly keeps in touch with the Goan diaspora globally and wants Global Goans and the NRI Commission to unite to build infrastructure in the state of Goa.
Alexander is proud to have been instrumental of creating Mhozo Gaum Mhojem Goem, a scheme to leverage NRI funds and hopes he’s efforts go a long way to create and fund infrastructure projects like bus shelters, community halls, auditoriums, water harvesting units and much more across Goa.
