Elaine Rodrigues Events Director 07940583479
Jason Fernandes Cultural Director 07704494008
Daryl Da Costa General Secretary 07985593077
Introduction:
The Young London Goan Society is a group of, yes you guessed it, Young London Goans aged 18 and over! The group began life in February 2000 and was actually started by some younger Goans. The name Young London Goans Society just reflects where we started, we welcome everyone!
It was started as a response to seeing and hearing older people complain about how the younger people need to get together more and we need to encourage more unity blah blah blah. Going to Goan Dances over our younger years was great, but that whole thing ran out of steam.
There is some great stuff happening to create a sense of unity (for example GOACOM, and GoanVoice) but there was nothing really to appeal to the younger generation.
Some people have kept up strong Goan friends, and some haven't. Friendships come and go, but a certain community spirit was missing among us younger people, we didnt go to Goan School and we cant reminisce about things the way our parents' generation can!
What is great though, is that we all have the shared experiences of being Goan, the parents; the cousins; the friends of friends of friends; the where are we from thing; the (Goan) Elvis; the sorpatel the xacuti, you know what we mean!
This group is a non-profit making organisation and seeks to build on our shared experiences and have some fun along the way too.
Mission:
Our mission is to build a strong and integrated community of Goans.
That's it. Simple. And deliberately so: it's consistent with any other Goan organisation. What makes us different is that were stating it explicitly here, and our use of the word integrated.
By integrated we mean that we create a strong sense of Goan identity, and at the same time respect for other cultures around us. We know we live in a multi-cultural world, we're powerfully expressing our part of the melting pot!