#Condolence Meeting in Remembrance of Mr. #AlanLeather @ActionVillageIn

06 March 2019, Amrit Nagar (Hazaribag): Mr. Alan Leather, the president of Action Village India, U. K. departed for heavenly abode on 3rd March 2019. He was sick and under medical treatment for some time. This sad news was shared by Mr. Ivan Nutbrown (Ex – Coordinator, AVI) who was in Hazaribag recently. As NBJK is a partner organization of AVI for a long time, the information was quite shocking and a condolence meeting held to remember Mr. Alan Leather. This started with an introductory note by Mr. Rajeev Kumar Singh (Programme Coordinator, NBJK) who invited people to offer flowers and garlanding the portrait of Mr. Alan as paying homage to the deceased.

This was followed by a minute long silence to mourn his demise and Mr. Ivan Nutbrown talked about his first meeting with Mr. Alan in the year 1969 at Patna. At that time, Mr Alan was representing Oxfam in India and Mr. Ivan was a volunteer at Samanway Ashrama, Bagaha, near Barachatti in Gaya district of Bihar. Later Mr. Alan has worked with refugees from Bangladesh as well as with trade unions in UK, South Africa and other countries emerged after dissolution of Soviet Union. Also he was a theatre artist and contributed to pro-democracy movement in South Africa. Mr. Alan was a versatile man with access to both rich or poor and he was like a life insurance for AVI, Mr. Ivan said in the meeting. Ms Zennie (AVI Supporter) praised Mr. Alan as a master communicator and remembered one of his address with body language on Women’s Day  at Chennai earlier. Mr. Girija Satish (President, NBJK) recalled about the first meeting with Mr. Alan Leather in 1966 during drought relief works in Odisha and valued his dedication for social work across the globe passionately. Mr. Alan was a great believer of democracy and always he cared for the wishes of AVI partner organizations, Mr. Girija Satish pointed out. Also Ms Ellie Cockle and Ms Vicky Addinall (both AVI supporters) have talked about Mr. Alan Leather and his contribution to humanity.

Later a mango plant was sown in memory of Mr. Alan Leather at NBJK premises. All the staffs have participated in the meeting and plantation ceremony.