Wilson Saldanha
Daijiworld Media Network - Kuwait
Kuwait, Jan 12: Educationist, entrepreneur and social worker Sam Alphonso passed away here in the early hours of Sunday January 12.
General manager at Thuwainy Trading Company, Sam Alphonso contributed a lot towards the education of the underprivileged, and was bearing the cost of over 250 nursing students, including their fees, clothing, hostel and other expenses year after year.
He was very sad about North Canara's backwardness in education as compared to neighboring districts and took a challenge to educate people of his region by contributing maximum. He never donated to any associations for their programmes, except for education. He built many schools without mentioning his name on them and sponsored salaries of teachers to spread education.
He also built churches to support people who faced problems without a place of worship. Once, when he found out about the financial difficulties of priests, he deposited a huge amount in the bank and provided a fixed monthly salary to priests of the whole diocese with interest. He never got support of any institutions whether religious or political as all the donations were made from his individual income and benefited the beneficiary directly without any interference or middlemen in between. While he was generous in his donation to worthy causes, he did not allow anyone to misuse his kindness for fame.
He neither gave any interviews nor allowed anyone to publish his good deeds. He remained away from the spotlight, away from social media and news. During 2014, when Daiji Rang Mandir, Dubai presented Konkani drama "Aami Nathlyaa Vellar" at KCWA silver Jubilee, he had donated KD 5,000 (approximately Rs 11.75 lac) generously on the spot looking at the educational activities of KCWA. He had openly invited underprivileged children to contact him if they could not afford education.
More details awaited.