Catholic activist Allwyn Fernandes passes away

He was 66.

Mumbai:  Allwyn Fernandes, senior journalist, communication consultant and lay Catholic activist, passed away late on Tuesday in Mumbai after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 66.

He is survived by his wife Enid, children Rohini and Rohan. A large circle of friends in the media, politics, civil society and management circles mourn him, including a large number of students he mentored over the decades.

His death was announced in social media by Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash, a noted human rights activist and a close friend.

Fernandes began carrier with the Times of India and spent the first 25 years of his working life as a journalist, taking up the cause of the poor and the oppressed, doing a series of investigative stories.

He then made a career switch and joined a public relations agency. He then set up his own media consultancy firm. He was active later in social media and in Internet communities discussing issues of human rights, secularism and faith.

Born on 1 June 1948, as a media consultant, he has been counseling a wide range of global clients on media strategy and sensitivity for almost 20 years. He headed the Communications Skills Training for company spokespersons, Crisis Management Training for senior management and media awareness sessions for key executives, helping them to understand what media is looking for and avoid needless conflict.

Besides media training, Fernandes was been involved in several crisis management situations and public affairs campaigns that involved spokespersons training. He was invited to share his experiences on "Biotechnology in Asian Agriculture – Generating Public Support" at the Asian Agriculture Congress at Manila in April 2001.

Fernandes majored in Physics-Mathematics from St Xavier’s College (Bombay University in 1969) and then did his journalism from Bhavan’s College of Mass Communication and the International Institute for Journalism in Berlin.