Mathews Gamit - CHANGEMAKER

Posted on 09. Jul, 2009 by Aditi in Community Mobilization, Employment, Health, Our Changemakers, Rights and Welfare

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Mathews’ Venture - Shakti Karan 

Matthews has always been very enthusiastic in helping the villagers. He also got good grades in school but due to financial crisis in his family he could not study further. He saw families being ruined, lives being lost due to alcohol addiction in his village. Nothing was being done to arrest this growing problem, Mathews decided to address it. Strongly advocating against alcohol consumption, helping the youth get employment, empowering them, were causes that Mathews took up. Attending workshops and training sessions through Shakti and Youth Venture brought out the best in him. Very soon he was able to effect a ban on alcohol manufacture and sale. He started counselling on the ills of alcohol consumption and conducted volleyball and cricket tournament to get the youth together and extricate them from the habit. Also started driving classes to enable them to earn a livelihood and support their families. It did not start easy; there was a lot of resistance to his initiative. He approached the Women’s Empowerment Committee for assistance. He included the women from the village in his venture, most of who were being abused by their drunken husbands. Gradually he was able to garner support from the villagers in his endeavour thereby curtailing the problem leading to steady progress and development. Today Mathews is a much respected man in his village as he continues to work towards generating more employment opportunities and ensuring his village is completely free of alcohol abuse.

  

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