Dear Friends,
It gives me immense pleasure to speak before you at this opening ceremony of the 20th General Assembly of the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs. I am thankful to you all for taking the pain to come here after a long journey from various places. Today we are here about 370 delegates representing the YMCAs from 20 countries and territories of the Asia and Pacific. I welcome you all at this General Assembly.
We feel very much honoured to have amongst us, our good friends Ms. Patricia Pelton, the newly elected President and Mr. Carlos Sanvee the new Secretary General of the World Alliance of YMCAs. We congratulate them and also welcome them at this Assembly. Their presence reflects their care and commitment for APAY and the spirit of the oneness of the World YMCA movement. We thank them for their presence.
At APAY it is our constitutional requirement to hold the General Assembly at the end of each quadrennial. YMCA leaders both lay and professionals who join this assembly voice out their expectations from APAY, take an account of the activities which were held in the past four years and also determine the thrust of APAY for the next four years. It is also the task of the delegates here to elect the new leadership of APAY for the next four years. I firmly believe that the next leadership chosen at this Assembly will take APAY further towards reaching its goals.
In the past four years, we can undoubtedly say APAY have leaped a step forward in attaining our YMCA mission, our programs have increased substantially, our constituent YMCAs have also had also been engaged more in responding to the needs of the communities.
YMCA being a Christian organization, we have a special responsibility to instil Christian values in our works in the spirit of ecumenism. We have responsibility towards all people, as we believe that they are all children of God, irrespective of the faith or beliefs. In our work we had been very much attentive to bear this in our mind while executing our programs.
Just a few days ago we celebrated the 175th Anniversary of the YMCA, as the oldest movement in the history of the world, and we shall be celebrating bi-centennial anniversary of the YMCA within the next 25 years. As members of this movement, we need to strengthen our efforts in the coming days so that the YMCAs can be more active with its programs responding to the needs of the communities? An organization which do not connect with its own communities becomes meaningless. While doing so, we also need to put emphasis in preserving God’s creation, the responsibility given to us in the Challenge21. Programs to protect the environment should be our priority to ensure a better life for our next generation.
Before ending I want to recognize Mongolia YMCA for being the newest YMCA affiliated to the World Alliance of YMCAs. I congratulate the leaders of the Mongolia YMCA on this occasion. For now onwards they will also be able to exercise the rights of a full member of APAY.
Finally, I thank our host committee, the National Council of YMCAs of Japan for hosting this Assembly and I am sure that all their relentless efforts will turn this Assembly to a grand success. I also recall their financial contribution for holding this Assembly which has contributed towards reducing our participation fees to a great extent and we have been able to support quite a number of delegates, especially the youths from national movements having financial constraints to travel here. I can assure you that in the coming few days we will have a wonderful time here with warm Japanese hospitality.
Thank you.
Babu Markus Gomes
President,
Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs.
3rd September 2019
Tozanso, Japan