Jai Jinendra,

It is with regret that we have to inform you of passing away of our founder secretary Mr Mansukhlal Meghji Haria on 5th July 2005 following a massive heart attack on 28th May 2005. Mansukhbhai was 62 years old & had been our secretary for 8 years from the day our association was started. He has served OEWA & OAUK in his earlier years with dedication and integrity. We will miss his wisdom & integrity. We extend our condolences to his wife Mrs. Sudhaben M Haria, son Neal & daughter Seema & pray to god to give them strength at this difficult time.

We are now entering in our 9th year of membership with just over 2000 members. We have had an interesting year & are glad to inform you that all our activities have been successful. We have covered matters & subjects relating to our membership in areas such as Housing, Benefits, Health, Lunch meetings & Holidays. Detailed report is enclosed in this booklet. We have been particularly satisfied with the launch of Asian Cancer Support Group in North & South London in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Relief. We are confident that the support groups will give benefits to many people who are affected by this illness & to their carers.

As you know recently we submitted a sealed tender to acquire a freehold day centre in Edgware, North London. We regret to inform you our bid was not successful to purchase this property. However we thank many members & well-wishers who supported us in this venture & those who sent their donations.

This organisation needs a lot of Volunteer force & we are most grateful to Dhiraj F Shah, our treasurer, and committee members, Mr Shantilal Shah, Meena J Shah, Mrs Vijyaben Shah, and Mrs Anuradhaben K Shah & our Co-ordinator Mr Satish L Shah. All the committee members have put in a lot of hard work to ensure smooth running. Our co-ordinator is going strong despite surgery in June 2005. He has built many contacts & was honoured in Feb 2005 to be invited to a party hosted by Rt Hon Prime Minister Tony Blair. Our Secretary also provided us valuable services.

We also thank many members who regularly help at Luncheon meetings in preparation of food & handling the entrance at functions. The co-ordinators at cancer Support Group are also putting in a lot of their time & effort for which we are grateful. We thank all these members & well-wishers for their kind donations during the year. We also thank Paresh & Parag for their website support & to Mrs Kusumben & Narendrabhai for Gujarati translation.

Finally we apologise if we have hurt any members in our organisation during our activities. We have had some complaints at North London Luncheon where members / guests have had to wait outside for entry. We will try to improve our systems but need to follow our rules to be fair to all. You will all appreciate we handle nearly 500 – 600 members at Lunch meetings & have to be practical for the benefit of all members.

Jai Jinendra