Khaled Almaeena delivering keynote speech at the thematic conference of the Center for Information and Guidance India (CIGI) International in Jeddah. Dignitaries on the dais from right: Syed Masood Ahmed, P.M. Ameer Ali, Ramnarayan Iyer, P.A. Abdul Salam, A.M. Ashraff and Saifuddeen. — SG photo



Hassan Cheruppa

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The recently concluded 7th annual meet and thematic conference was a ground breaking event for the Center for Information and Guidance India (CIGI) International in its latest bid to drive the community to excellence in all walks of life.



Veteran journalist Khaled Almaeena and several other dignitaries, in their inspiring speeches, urged the Kerala-based NGO to take up the daunting task so as to enable the society to cope with the potential challenges and reach great heights of excellence.



The two-day meeting with the theme of “Driving towards excellence” witnessed several brainstorming sessions with active participation of delegates from within the Kingdom as well as from other Gulf states and India.



In his keynote speech at the opening session, Almaeena, the chief guest, underscored that NGO’s like CIGI has also to a play a parallel role in mitigating the suffering of people apart from its academic role.



“CIGI is doing a great service in giving guidance and counseling for families of about 90 percent of Indian expatriates who are back home. CIGI must strive to fortify their strategies abroad in a way helping these families," he said.



While appreciating CIGI for playing a great role especially in the empowerment of women and supporting them to have higher education, he urged it to push for women’s empowerment and active participation in all walks of life.



He called the NGO to work for injecting more self confidence and self respect in the younger generation. “CIGI should also help expatriates with counseling. Many expatriates are suffering from great pressure at their work place, sometimes in freezing cold, and some of them are deprived of even their basic rights under bad sponsors.” 



Almaeena commended expatriates, especially Indians, for their big role in the Kingdom’s nation building process. “Without the selfless service of expatriates, the Gulf states would not have advanced, and people from the Indian subcontinent have contributed tremendously to the growth and development of this nation. Many educated Saudis salute Indians for maintaining their traditions and not changing their culture.”



“It is great that even while making money and dong businesses, they hold fast to their traditions and roots. India’s beauty is in its secular traditions, and its unity in diversity is extremely appreciable,” he said while underscoring the role of Indians in the success of his personal life. “I love India and its people, and my success in life was made possible in part by them, thanks to Indians.”



Almaeena recalled his recent visit to Kerala and shared his experiences. He urged NGO’s like CIGI to take up responsibilities to mitigate the suffering of people caused by problems like pollution. “There is no communal tension in the state mainly because of its highly educated and civilized people. But the only disturbing scene is pollution as beautiful lakes are so dirty and in some areas no water is seen but only plastics,” he said, adding that he had written to the state’s top authorities to address this problem.



In his speech Syed Masood Ahmed, principal of International Indian School Jeddah, congratulated CIGI for choosing the theme, as excellence is today’s necessity.



“A few decades ago, excellence was considered as an additional value to education but now in the global village it has become a necessity in all walks of life.”



He asked education to be looked at in its larger perspective where it addresses the basic aim of developing every child into useful citizens who would contribute to the society.



“The world is facing several enormous challenges and success is only for those societies who comprehend these challenges and accordingly prepare strategies to develop their children so as to enable them to find solutions to these challenges.”



While assuring continued cooperation from the school side, he requested CIGI to explore the feasibility of expanding the activities to other states of India.



In his inspiring speech, Ramnarayan Iyer, executive editor of Saudi Gazette, appreciated CIGI for its ongoing social service and academic endeavors, especially for achievements in empowering women and the under privileged. “The upper strata can go anywhere and do anything but for those who don’t have will be always left behind.”



He said that CIGI is teaching people to learn from life. “As life is a tough taskmaster and a good teacher, we should learn from our own life and that is what CIGI is attempting to do — learn from life to give life.”



Underscoring the relevance of the theme excellence, he said that education is the key and excellence in education is the master key in today’s world. “A commitment plus hard work to achieve excellence will give you success, and that is what my 30 years of association with Almaeena taught me and that has made me successful in life.”



Referring to the two million figures of beneficiaries from CIGI’s educational counseling and guidance, he added: “What you sow, you reap, and CIGI is planting their best efforts and so it can harvest a better tomorrow.”



In his presidential speech, P.A. Abdul Salam, president of CIGI, introduced the conference theme and underlined its objective of converting the ideas for social transformation into operational models and action plans.



“CIGI believes education is the only platform through which we can deliver excellence. It is a platform promoting education, employment and empowerment. CIGI succeeded in democratizing career guidance and counseling in the last two decades and made it available to the under privileged at the grass roots level.”



He further explained the theme and its components as “Parenting Excellence”, “Individual Excellence”, “Institutional Excellence” and “Community Excellence”, and emphasized that it is the need of the hour to achieve excellence with values in all walks of life.



A.M. Ashraff, president of Jeddah chapter of CIGI, thanked the CIGI leadership for bestowing the honor of hosting the conference for the first time in Jeddah. “Jeddah is the gateway to Makkah, the place chosen by Almighty Allah as the starting point of human civilization. As such, it is the right venue for an intellectual gathering to deliberate on spreading excellence in the society.”



He thanked the educational institutions and the parent community for patronizing the student centered CIGI initiatives in the Kingdom. “We have a great mandate to fulfill – to guide the next generation and take them forward,” he said.



In his welcome address, P.M. Ameer Ali, chairman of CIGI International, lauded the support of prominent leaders of various social, business and media organizations in enabling CIGI to carry a package of programs and activities in its drive for excellence.



Abdul Rahman Alawi recited a few verses from the Qur’an and Abdul Majeed, coordinator of CIGI international, proposed a vote of thanks.



Saifuddeen anchored the program.



On the second day of the conference, the delegates had brainstorming sessions to generate ideas that would eventually be transformed into projects. Musthafa K.M, advisor of CIGI Jeddah Chapter, welcomed the delegates and initiated the discussions.



Z.A. Ashraf, general secretary of CIGI, explained what it means to achieve at institutional level excellence.



Ashraff AM introduced the Islamic perspective on excellence and Mohamed Firoz, vice chairman of CIGI International, harped on the inevitability of having a mindset that seeks out and nurtures excellence in all walks of life.



Team leaders – Abdul Aziz, Mohamed Afnas, Mustafa K.M and Moosa Kutty — presented the action plans for further fine tuning and implementation under the four identified components of excellence.



In his concluding address, Abdul Salam mandated CIGI Jeddah Chapter to submit detailed project reports on the recommended items.



A.P. Nisam and Dr. K.T. Ashraf, secretary of CIGI, summarized the conference outcomes.



Rasheed Ameer, convenor of conference organizing committee, thanked the leaders from Kerala and the delegates from GCC chapters for their active participation towards meeting the conference objectives.



The conference ended with a soul stirring prayer by Hammad Abdul Rahman.