Lithuanians in the News
23rd September 2012
XIV Lithuanian World Community Congress
Australian Lithuanian delegates to the World Lithuanian Community Congress. (L-R)
Sigita Gailiūnaitė, Lidija Šimkutė-Pocienė, Dr Kazys Zdanius, Birutė Prašmutaitė,
Gabrielius Žemkalnis and Dr Saulius Varnas. Photo courtesy ”Mūsų Pastogė”
World Lithuanian Community President
Danguolė Navickienė. Photo courtesy plbe.org
The XIV Lithuanian World Community Congress (Pasaulio Lietuvių Bendruomenės - PLB Seimas) was held at the Lithuanian Parliament House August 7 -10, 2012 in Vilnius. The Lithuanian World Community encompasses all Lithuanian Communities around the world outside Lithuania and its governing body is the Seimas (Congress), which currently meets every three years and elects the Community Council to deal with everyday issues.
Ambassador Gintė Damušytė.
Photo courtesy urm.lt
There were 190 delegates from 30 Lithuanian Communities around the world. The Australian Lithuanian delegates to the PLB Seimas were Sigita Gailiūnaitė (Canberra), Lidija Šimkutė-Pocienė (Adelaide), Dr Kazys Zdanius (Melbourne), Birutė Prašmutaitė (Melbourne), Gabrielius Žemkalnis (Melbourne), and Dr Saulius Varnas (President of the Australian Lithuanian Community Federal Executive, from Adelaide).
Danguolė Navickienė from the USA was elected as Chairperson of the Lithuanian World Community Council for next three year term. Also elected to the World Community Council were Jūratė Caspersen (Switzerland), Artūras Maslaukas (Denmark), Dalia Henke (Germany), Gintautas Želvys (Russia), Aušra Laurušaitienė-Kromelis (USA), Juan Ignacio Fourment-Kalvelis (Argentina), Aurelija Norienė (Belgium), Lina Stode (Sweden), Angelė Vaičiūnienė (Canada).
Appreciating the significance of the Lithuanian diaspora to Lithuania the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has appointed an experienced diplomat, Gintė Damušytė, as ambassador to the World Lithuanian Community. Ambassador Gintė Damušytė has held many important diplomatic posts, including ambassador to NATO and Canada.

Further information: www.plbe.org   “Mūsų Pastogė” 05/09/12
http://www.urm.lt/index.php?3718823479