‘Village Builder’ Windey honoured with Belgian award

Pondicherry – Jesuit Fr. Michael Anthony Windey, the founder–director of Village Reconstruction Organisation (VRO), has been recently honoured with the ‘Knight of the Order of Leopold Award’ of the Belgian Government for his 35 year–long outstanding and dedicated services rendered to the people of India with the help of hundreds of volunteers. Crown Prince Philippe of Belgium pinned the award–medal on Father Windey at a function in the Belgian embassy, Delhi on March 13. The King Leopold Award is given only for exceptional services, at home or abroad, to people born in Belgium.

Following the aftermath of the tsunami disaster of December last year, Fr. Windey has been trying his best to reach out to as many villagers as possible in south India and presently stationed in Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, interacting with villagers, government officials and sponsors to help the neglected victims of tsunami. According to latest news reports, VRO has plans of rebuilding about 15 villages in Pondicherry alone.

The VRO, founded in 1969 as a living memorial to the ideas and example of Mahatma Gandhi, is an attempt to demonstrate an alternative way for a socio–cultural synthesis of development and ruralisation. It is a movement for village renewal spread out in seven states and the Union Territory of Pondicherry with its head office in Pedakakni in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The organisation has helped rebuild nearly 500 villages and has about 600 volunteers at present working in 12 regions of the organisation. The VRO’s activities are divided into 10 sectors, which include learning (education), environment, technology, health, culture and construction. No two reconstructed VRO villages are identical. Each village has its own distinctive layout.

The activities are supported mainly by VRO’s European units in countries like Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy.