T
he Institute of Integrat-
ed Electrical Engineers
State of Qatar Chapter
(IIEE-SQC) recently organ-
ised its 15th annual conference
along with a technical webinar,
general membership meeting
and election for the 2021 board
of directors.
The event was attended
by Monica Remsy Calang-
ian, third secretary and vice
consul with the Philippine
Embassy; Evelyn C Laranang,
welfare officer and POLO/
OWWA representative; Fran-cis V Mapile, Board of Electri-
cal Engineering (BEE) chair-
man; Jaime V Mendoza, BEE
member; Rodrigo T Pecolera,
IIEE national president; Dene
S Horneja, Middle East Re-
gion (MER) governor; Robert
U Mabulay, 2016-2018 MER
governor; Joseph A Recella,
IIEE-SQC president; board of
directors, former presidents,
advisers, members, students,
and electrical practitioners
in other chapters around the
globe.
The event sponsor was Lu-matron Qatar WLL where its
founder, Yasser Slim Wehbe,
provided a presentation of
their solar product offerings.
The event was a hybrid one,
where 45 attendees were at the
Hilton Hotel and more than
300 attended via Zoom video
conferencing.
Election for the 2021 board
of directors was held and by
the end of the day, a new set of
BODs was proclaimed and took
their oaths of office.
The 2021 IIEESQC BOD
office-bearers are: Rudilyn SReyes, president; Lauren M
Olivos, vice president inter-
nal; Jimmy Michael Y Bugay,
vice president external; En-
rique I Flores, vice president
technical; Lyndon A Ellevera,
secretary; Alex A Alvior, treas-
urer; Roderick R Pajes, audi-
tor; Mario M Solang, PRO;:
Marlon L Manantan, assistant
secretary; Bryan A Manansala,
assistant treasurer; Christo-
pher N Pino, assistant auditor;
Rocky L Feller, business man-
ager; and Joseph O Salviejo,
executive secretary.I
ndian Cultural Centre (ICC),
one of the apex bodies un-
der the aegis of the Indian
embassy, held its annual general
meeting recently. Considering
social distancing norms due to
Covid-19, the AGM was held on
a virtual platform.
The meeting was attended by
Dr Deepak Mittal, India’s am-
bassador to Qatar and patron of
ICC; Xavier Dhanraj, ICC co-
ordinating offi cer; K M Varghese,
ICC advisory council chairman;
presidents and managing com-
mittee members of other apex
bodies, presidents and mem-
bers of associated organisations,founder members of ICC, sen-
ior community leaders and the
members of ICC.
Vinod V Nair, ICC vice-pres-
ident, welcomed the gathering.
Manikantan A P, ICC president,
made the opening remarks. An-
jan Kumar Ganguli, ICC joint
secretary, was the MC of the
meeting. Seenu Pillai, ICC gen-
eral secretary, presented the
annual report for the year 2019-
2020.
Rajesh N Singh, ICC head of
fi nance, presented the fi nancial
highlights and the plan forward.
Jaff ar Khan M, ICC head of
premises, HR & sports, present-ed the vote of thanks. Shanavas
Bava from SB Bava & Associates,
ICC’s auditor for 2019, presented
the audit report.
The meeting was interactive
and ICC representatives an-
swered questions raised by the
attendees.
The AGM was held using the
conference room facilities of
Quantum Global Solutions. In
recognition of the support from
the company, Rajesh N Singh,
Quantum fi nance and adminis-
tration director, was felicitated
by the president and the man-
aging committee of ICC at the
Ashoka Hall.T
he Andhra Kala Vedika-
Qatar (AKV) management
committee recently met
India’s ambassador to Qatar, Dr
Deepak Mittal, at his offi ce and
explained the activities of the as-
sociation.
AKV focused on the social and
cultural activities of the association
members in Qatar and the ways and
means to strengthen co-operation
between the Indian Telugu workers
and the embassy, together with the
AKV management committee.
Xavier Dhanaraj, fi rst secre-
tary at the Indian embassy, was
also present at the meeting.
Satyanaya Mali Reddy, AKV
president, together with AKV
managing committee members
briefed the ambassador on the
social works carried out by the
association such as distribution
of food kits, medicines, co-op-
eration extend to the embassy for
Vande Bharat fl ights.
They also briefed the ambas-
sador on their cultural activities
with 30 plus diff erent online pro-
grammes for the last one year es-
pecially during the Covid-19 pan-
demic. The challenges faced while
arranging the chartered fl ights to
Visakhapatnam and Vijayawadaalso came under discussion.
AKV, founded by expats from
Andhra Pradesh, is affi liated with
the Indian Cultural Center under
the aegis of the Indian embassy.
AKV is a socio-cultural non-
profi t organisation functioning
in Qatar for community develop-
ment and the welfare of Telugu
speaking people.
B Venkappa, AKV general sec-
retary; S S Rao, vice president;
Vikaram, joint general secretary;
V B K Murthy, KT Rao, GK Dora,
Sudha and Sirisha, managing
committee members; were also
present at the meeting.Indian journalist
gets US grant for
women tech initiatives
Gulf Times’ former employee Krishnan C
K’s daughter Nisha Krishnan, an Indian
television journalist and founder of chan-
neliam.com, has been awarded a US
Department of State grant for empowering
women tech initiatives.
The grant is a result of Nisha’s participa-
tion in the Alumni Thematic International
Exchange Seminar (TIES), held in Almaty,
Kazakhstan in 2019. The project involves
a hackathon and virtual summit focusing
on the safety of women in cyberspace
and public, women hygiene solutions, and
re-skilling opportunities for women in the
post-Covid world.
Nisha will organise in December the ‘She
Power’ Hackathon and Summit in associa-
tion with the US Department of State and
implementing partner World Learning. The
hackathon, open to women startups, aim
to encourage women tech innovations in
India. The initiative is supported by the Ker-
ala Startup Mission. To know more about
the programme, visit http://www.shepower.inIIEE-SQC’s 15th annual conference held
ICC holds annual general meeting
COMMUNITY
5
Friday, November 27, 2020‘Exercise is medicine’
By Mudassir Raja
Staff ReporterT
he scientifi c evidence con-
tinues to mount verifying the
fact that exercise works as
medicine. Physical activity is often
as eff ective as drugs when it comes
to preventing death from diabetes
and cardiovascular disease.
The realisation about how sig-
nifi cant physical fi tness is to having
a healthy lifestyle and ward off fatal
diseases has been getting stronger in
Qatar as well. As the country keeps
promoting sports and physical ac-
tivities, people have more choices to
stay physically active and fi t.
Ana Catarina Trindade is a young
Portuguese expatriate and a physi-
cal trainer and fi tness coach. Since
her arrival in Qatar fi ve years ago,
she has been training and coaching
young school kids and university
students on how to stay fi t. She mo-
tivates particularly women to stay
active and fi t. The fi tness perform-
ance coach in a recent interview with
Gulf Times shed light on how she be-
came the trainer and what she has
been doing in Qatar.
Ana has been into sports and ex-
ercise since her childhood and has
made it her professional career. “I
come from a sporting family. My
grandfather was into football and
cycling. My father was a professional
footballer and taekwondo player. I
used to cycle and follow my grand-
father. When I was six year old, my
father put me in a taekwondo class.”
As she grew older, she studiedphysical education and made it
her profession. “I got a university
degree in Physical Education and
Sports Science. I coach for physi-
cal performance, athletics, and los-
ing weight especially for women. I
have worked in Spain and for some
time in UAE. As I wanted to get out
of my country, my company in Spain
gave me an option either to work
in Kuwait or Qatar. I chose Qatar
without a second thought. Initially,
I trained students for physical and
sports skills from KG to Grade-VI at
Al Khor International School. Now,
I am the gym instructor for femalestudents at Qatar University. I have
also been organising training and
coaching sessions.”
The taekwondo player has been
enjoying coaching and training stu-
dents and people from diff erent
backgrounds and countries in Qatar.
“It is like teaching or training the
world here. I have been training stu-
dents on how they can have a healthy
lifestyle by being physically fi t. It has
been a very good stay in Qatar so far.
It is my second home. People are
very friendly. It is a safe and secure
place to live.”
Ana believes exercise acts likemedicine and plays an undeniable
role in being healthy and fi t. “I be-
lieve in the phrase that exercise is
medicine. It is a preventive medi-
cine. By being physically active, we
can escape many health issues and
serious diseases. Nowadays, people
tend to spend more and more time
watching the screen. When there
used to be no TVs, computers and
mobile phones, people were involved
more in physical activities even to
socialise.”
The fi tness enthusiast lays more
stress on the need of children and
women being active. “This year,children are like addicted to mobile
or tab screens. They need to be ac-
tive or they can become unhealthy.
They are our future and we need to
protect them. We need to bring them
out of house and get them involved
in physical activities regularly.
“Women in particular need to be
physically active. Even if they are in
house, they need to fi nd ways to be
active with children. They can set
up an indoor gym. They can do gar-
dening or get involved in physical
household activities.”
When asked how an individual
can motivate oneself for the regu-
lar exercise, Ana said: “It depends
on an individual. It varies from
people to people. If you feel some-
thing is not good about your body,
get started. For example, if you
can move around swiftly or cannot
touch your feet, it is time to start
exercising. Start now and do not
wait for tomorrow. Even age does
not matter. It can be important for
some sport activity but every age is
okay for physical activity.”
The Portuguese coach is upbeat
about the growing enthusiasm for
fi tness in Qatar. “People are getting
more and more involved in fi tness
activities. What I have witnessed
during the Covid-19 lockdown was
amazing. People became more con-
scious of their health and physical
fi tness.
“With major sporting events soon
coming to Qatar, the sport and fi t-
ness frenzy is growing here. We need
to be fi t and happy to welcome the
visitors to the FIFA 2022 Football
World Cup.”Ana Catarina Trindade, Portuguese taekwondo coach, is upbeat about rise in fitness frenzy in Qatar
Ana Catarina Trindade Ana believes exercise plays an undeniable role in being healthy and fit.Nisha KrishnanAKV offi ce-bearers meet
Indian ambassador