jeanettedsouza.serra@gmail.com
Jeannette grew up in Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, in India. She got her Bachelor of Commerce degree from St. John’s College, University of Agra. She worked with the airlines until she got married in 1966 and went to live in Kuwait in the Middle East. After settling down with her two daughters, she worked as Assistant Administrator with a local bank that was run by Chase Manhattan Bank. When Kuwait was invaded by Saddam Hussein in 1990, she returned to India. Rather than retire so early in life she preferred to do her bit for the Church, now that she had the time. She began with teaching spoken English to candidates to the Jesuit seminary and continued to do so for seventeen years. But that was not enough. She felt she had a calling to be a Counsellor and studied for this with the Redemptorist fathers in Bangalore subsequently overseeing two parish-based Pastoral Counselling centres. She specialized in marriage counselling and took class, in this area, for the Redemptorist Seminarians in Bangalore. Jeanette and her husband Carlos were introduced to Serra in 2002 and were both Founding members of the Serra Club of Bangalore, India. Ever since she has been working passionately towards fulfilling Serra’s goals in India. With the help of a hard working and dedicated team, she introduced several innovative ideas to foster and promote vocations, in compliance with the local customs and environment. After her husband passed away she moved to Canada to live with her 2 daughters. She joined the International Board in 2016 and is currently the liason between Serra International and Serra in India. She is also a member of the Serra Toronto West Club in Canada.