His excellencies ambassadors and high commissioners from the african continent at the sulabh campus

His Excellencies

Ambassadors and High Commissioners from the African Continent at the Sulabh Campus on January 18 , 2016

His Excellency

Mr. Ernest Rwamucyo High Commissioner of the Republic of Rwanda to India Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

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is Excellency Mr. Ernest Rwamucyo has extensive experience working on development and poverty reduction policies in Sub-Saharan Africa. He has worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York as Policy Advisor on the Millennium Development Goals. He had also worked for the Government of Rwanda as Director-General for Economic Development Planning in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning and Director of Strategic planning and Poverty Reduction Monitoring in the Ministry. He worked at the Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) Secretariat as head of Economic Planning before joining Rwanda’s Ministry of Finance. H.E Rwamucyo has been Chair and member of Board of Directors of Several Public and Private enterprises and non-governmental organizations. He was also a researcher and Assistant Lecturer at the National University of Rwanda. H.E Ernest Rwamucyo holds a masters degree in Development Policy and Planning from Cornell University and a Bachelors Degree in Public Administration from the National University of Rwanda.

Mr. Rwamucyo was awarded 2012 Diplomat of the year from Africa by Diplomat Magazine in London.

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His Excellency

Dr. Mbuya Isaac Munlo High Commissioner of Malawi to India

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is Excellency, Dr. Mbuya Isaac Munlo is the new Malawi High Commissioner to India. Dr. Munlo was Malawi’s Ambassador to Ethiopia where he served from 2010 to 2013. He was also accredited to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Saharawi (Western Sahara), Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan and Togo. As Ambassador Extra Ordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Malawi to the African Union and the Economic Commission for Africa, he served as Chairperson of the Permanent Representatives Committee, and among other things, chaired the production of the African Union Commission’s strategic plan for 2014 to 2017. After serving as Ambassador in 2013, he worked as FAO Consultant on Partnerships and Development and as a Sub Regional Focal Person for the Renewed Partnership to End Hunger in Africa at FAO’s sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Dr. Munlo’s career as a civil servant started in 1978 as an Agricultural Officer in the Ministry of Agriculture in Malawi. Between 1987 and 2010, he held various portfolios as a development manager, academician, adviser, and consultant in Zambia, Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and the United Kingdom.

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His Excellency

Mr. Andre Sanra Ambassador of the Republic of Benin to India

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is Excellency Mr. Adre Sanra born on December 29, 1957 in Bembereke, Benin, His Excellency Mr. Andre Sanra has done research for a Doctorate Degree at the Ukrainian Institute of International Relations and International Law from January 1990 to 1993 and has secured Ph.D. in International Law. He has worked as First Counsellor, Embassy of Benin in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) from 1996 to 2004; Deputy Director of African Integration (July to Sept. 2004); and Deputy Director of Africa and Middle East Department (2004-2010). H.E. Mr. Sanra can speak French, English, Spanish, Russian apart from his mother tongue Batonu and was honoured with Knight of Benin National Order in New Delhi on January 25, 2016.

H.E. Mr. Sanra took over as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Benin to India on October 18, 2010.

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His Excellency

Daniel P. Othol Ambassador of the Republic of South Sudan to India

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is Excellencyhh Dr. Daniel Peter Othol Born on January 1, 1955, His Excellency Dr. Daniel Peter Othol had his University education during 197490 in Khartoum and London Universities. He holds a Masters Degree in Clinical Tropical Medicine (M.Sc. CTM).

He has work experience in a number of hospitals such as Soba and Khartoum Teaching Hospitals (1980-82); Malakal Hospital (1983); Nasin District Hospital (1984-85); Biet Bridge and Gwanda Hospitals in Zimbabwe (1990-96); Thamaga Hospital in Botswana (1996-99); and St. Pancras Hospital in London (HIV/AIDS as Lecturer to African Communities in South West, London (2000-08). He has also worked as Principal Liaison Officer for GOSS Mission in London (2009-12).

From October to December, 2010 H.E. Dr. Othol had undergone diplomatic training at Oliver Tambo Diplomatic Academy in Pretoria, South Africa. He was appointed in 2012 as Ambassador Grade 2 in the Republic of Sudan and Deployed as the First Ambassador of South Sudan to India and also as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Malaysia.

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His Excellency

Mr. Alam Tsehaye Woldemariam Ambassador of the State of Eritrea to India

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is Excellency Mr. Alem Tsehaye Woldemariam Born on April 28, 1942 His Excellency Mr. Alem Tsehaye Woldemariam had his school education in Asmara, Eritrea, during 1960-65 and at the Institute of Book Keepers, London in 1965-66. He did several short-term courses in International Relations and Diplomacy, Public Administration, International Trade and Environment, Export Promotion and IMO-Global Maritime and Environment during 1993-2004 in Eritrea, Switzerland, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Turkey, Egypt and Kenya.

He worked as head of the Accounts Department, Fikadu and Company (195952); Shipping Manager in Gellatley Hankey and SC and Maritime Transit Service Corp. (1970-80); Unit Leader and later as Branch Leader in the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (1974-1980); General Manager in EPLF-Afro Sudan Transport Co., Sudan (1981-1988); Department head, EPLF-Economic Commission (1988-91); Board Director, Asmara Chamber of Commerce, (1991-97); Director and later as Director-General in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (1991-2002).

H.E. Mr. Alem Tsehaye Woldemariam was appointed as Sector Board Director and later as Director-General in the Ministry of Transport and Communication (19962004) and Counsellor, Economic Affairs and Deputy Head of Mission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of the State of Eritrea, Beijing (2005-2007).

H.E. Mr. Woldemariam took over as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy of Eritrea, New Delhi, in 2007. |6|

His Excellency

Mr. Bothata Tsikoane High Commissioner of the Kingdom of Lesotho to India

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is Excellency Mr. Bothata Tsikoane, High Commissioner of the Kingdom of Lesotho to India, has 19 years’ experience in various positions. He was in Ministry of Communications – Reporter/Producer from 1996-97, Public Relations Manager from 1998-2001, Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation – Chief Information Officer from 2007 onwards, Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship – Chief Information Officer from 2007, and currently High Commissioner to India, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations.

Born on September 9, 1972, H.E. Mr. Tsikoane had university education from 2002-2005 in University of Fort Hare B.A. (Hons.) Corporate Communications and Diploma in Journalism from Africa Literature Centre, Zambia in the year 1995.

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Address by

His Excellency Mr. Ernest Rwamucyo, High Commissioner for Rwanda to India during his visit to the Sulabh Campus on January 18, 2016

Dr.

Bindeshwar, the Sulabh community, I think I cannot leave this beautiful campus without saying anything because seeing Dr. Bindeshwar and what Sulabh does reminds me of a very wonderful man I met a few years ago in London – a very successful businessman, Lord Raj Loomba, an Indian who lives in the United Kingdom.

When I first met him he was campaigning for a very big cause and he had been lobbying many leaders including my President (can somebody translate, they understand, everybody understands, wow……!!!). So he was campaigning for the UN, he was working to get support in the UN to establish the International Day of Widows and he was really really lobbying very heavily for it and it was a cause, that he really wanted to achieve and his story was inspiring, because he told me that when he was young his father died, and when his father died in an undivided India, it was very difficult for his mother, who had to beat all odds, all societal odds to raise him up, and she did a wonderful job. He grew up to be a very successful businessman and a wonderful soul. But what his mother did for him really had a huge impact on him, and he would say that he would not have been what he became if it was not for his mother, and that looking back, the mother had to really beat a lot of societal odds to be able to achieve that. It was because of the realization of her mother’s struggle to bring him up that he was working for that cause – of getting a UN International Day for Widows.

I wanted to share that story because I think it means a lot to all of us and I think to many of you, wanting to raise your young kids like lord Loomba’s Mom. And I would like to say that what Dr. Bindeshwar represents here and provides to Sulabh is very important and noble. It should inspire all of us to try as this reads, “if you have not helped anybody in distress you have not prayed to God yet” and I think that is very important and takes me to the second point I wanted to make.

Irrespective of where we come from, may be apart from few people who are atheist, but I think even atheists believe in something that is ‘bigger than themselves’. I think one thing that unites all of us as human beings is that we believe in a God irrespective of what image we put to that God, but I think we all believe in something big, we have some form of faith that is rooted in a bigger being that we call God; we can say it is Ganesha, we can say Hanuman, we can say |8|

Jesus Christ for some of us, we can say whatever we say, it will be the reason we believe there is a God, and there is a way to get to that God. Now since we believe in God, one way or another we are all created in a God’s image, and I think whatever image of God, it is a beautiful image, because God is beauty, God is love. So we are all beautiful, I think everybody is beautiful. Every young man is handsome, every lady whether young, widow or old is very beautiful. And I think when we walk on the street and we relate to each other, we should see that beauty and that beauty should connect all of us and I believe that and I also believe that in one way or another we also connect. In that image, everyone in their own way is very beautifully, more handsomely and even talented and gifted. As we are all gathered here, we should celebrate and pride in talents we have. We should pride in beauty that we have, we should pride in the good that each one has in them. And I think that is what Sulabh is about, that’s what Sulabh represents, that’s what Sulabh does, that’s what Sulabh gives to everybody, that we should all work and stand in the confidence, that we are all beautiful, we are all talented, we all can do good for ourselves, for community and for each other and I think that is a very strong inspiration.

Third and last point is about Mahatma Gandhi. I always make a point that when I speak in India, I can’t conclude without speaking about Mahatma Gandhi because as a kid, in Africa also we have learned more about Mahatma Gandhi and we even claim Mahatma Gandhi as our own, I think even more than you, because as you know Mahatma Gandhi left India as a student when he went to study in the UK. He left UK as a Lawyer. He went to Africa, in South Africa where he practiced Law. He was transformed while in South Africa, into an activist for social justice, so he came back to India as the Mahatma Gandhi. But actually that was created in Africa, so that’s why we claim him a lot. So as a kid the story of Mahatma Gandhi was very inspirational for me and that time I did not come to India but I think that’s another thing that will always bring us together, the spirit of Gandhi, the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi, the spirit of love, the spirit of justice, the spirit of support for each other, the spirit of seeing beauty in every one and supporting each other, is something that binds us together.

Thank you so much.

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Liberated manual scavengers from Alwar, Rajasthan, welcoming H.E. Mr. Alam Tsehaye Woldemariam, Ambassador of the State of Eritrea to India, by applying the traditional vermilion ‘Tilak’ on his forehead.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and the guests in the Assembly Hall

H.E. Ambassador keenly watching the process of making sanitary napkins.

His Excellencies evincing keen interest in the display boards which show the four-and-a-half decades journey of Dr. Pathak and Sulabh

His Excellencies being shown the model of the Sulabh two-pit ecological toilets installed in the areas where there is space constraint.

H.E. Mr. Andra Sanra, Ambassador of the Republic of Benin to India, being welcomed in Sulabh’s traditional way by applying the vermilion ‘Tilak’ on his forehead.

H.E. Mr. Bothata Tsikoane, High Commissioner of the Kingdom of Lesotho, lighting the mantle lamp, which uses biogas from the Sulabh Toilet Complex, as the source of energy.

His Excellencies being shown the model of the Biogas Plant

A joyous moment with the children of the Sulabh Public School.

The Curator of the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets explaining the exhibits and various artefacts at the Museum to His Excellencies.

A Sulabh official explaining the technology used to make the Sulabh Purified Water at the Sulabh Water ATM facility installed at the entrance of the Sulabh Campus

SULABH INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SERVICE ORGANISATION In General Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council Sulabh Bhawan, Palam Dabri Road, New Delhi - 110 045 Tel. Nos. : 91-11-25031518, 25031519; Fax Nos : 91-11-25034014, 91-11-25055952 E-mail: info@sulabhinternational.org, sulabhinfo@gmail.com Website: www.sulabhinternational.org, www.sulabhtoiletmuseum.org