But I’ve been thinking about how I choose to “present myself”.

It’s so easy on a public domain such as Facebook to pick and choose what we reveal about ourselves, what we choose to post on others walls, what we choose to put as our “status updates”. We can construct ourselves in a careful and planned way so that we are able to present only the best.

It’s the exact opposite of real family and community. When you live and share your life with people it’s impossible to hide the “bad bits”. They overflow out of us, often with no control. We put ourselves in a place of vulnerability when we let others see the darkness that’s within us. But we also put ourselves in a place to grow in our relationships, and allow other people to bring out all our potential. This is often when we feel truly alive.

What are your thoughts on this?

//

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I just finished watching one episode each of Chak Dhoom Dhoom and Dance India Dance, both airing simultaneously. It is quite rare for me to be watching TV and not be watching National Geographic, Discovery, Animal Planet and/or Fox History on it. Well good that I did watch these two for a change, for something was waiting to be unlearned.

Ever since these shows started , some years back, I have held the same opinion about them. NO GOOD, mostly.

They attract a few passionate and many lost.
Hello, not everyone can be a professional singer ! Not everyone can be a professional dancer ! Not everyone can be a celebrity ( liked I really cared that , that’s what people want to be also ) !

My friend the expression “everyone” in India usually translates into a huge number , given the fact that we are many many many here. This means many go back home disappointed ,crying, disillusioned and sometimes ready to die (suicidal I mean) !

The effect that these shows have on kids and parents is phenomenal. Many a dream is born and most shattered.Once shattered, then what ? Good question as I ask myself too .

The answer is not all that great. Like I said before, it can be suicidal also. The hype and the focus are so great that the consequences of losing are devastating. Our kids don’t know how to lose and our parents are only making things worse.

It’s interesting how the judges at such shows give “quick fix” answers to losing candidates ! Oh, boy “quick fixes” don’t work.

I also wonder what’s wrong with the parents ? If it’s not for your child then it’s not for your child. Don’t try to make it his or hers. ! But they never seem to get that. Tonnes of pressure on kids to perform and do exceedingly well and nothing else. To encourage a child to be all that he/she can be as against this one or two things, is what the parents should be doing. It’s just some reality show. It’s not the end of your child’s life or his/her career. Sort of reminds me of the kick-butt movie ” 3 Idiots “, where one the idiots narrates that within minutes of his birth his father had already declared what his son would take up as a career ! Moronic or what ?

Enough bashing. Here’s the turn along the road.

Boy, I did see some very very talented kids from really really poor backgrounds getting the opportunity ! That excited me and I watched on. I saw these very passionate dancers from severely poverty stricken backgrounds getting the chance to make things happen. And that was good. They did well and were recognized and things seemed to be fitting for me. I saw extreme passion in them and tonnes of hopes clinging onto this one chance. My heart melted to see India’s talent that has no chance.

I understand that parallel to this, some singing reality shows too provided a chance to hidden talent from the financially poor backgrounds. I liked that and all of this made me re-think .Things had to be unlearned.

There were some monkey advertisements that played during the shows, which I would like to talk about in another post ( specially that jumping jack Akshay Kumar going ” Button Khula Hai ” ).

My wife and I are planning for kids next year. I pray we can do things right and better as parents. Those would be our 2 cents.

P.S. Originally posted by me on my personal blog here

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The discussion was about political corruption. And the Yaksha Prashna (read as: million dollar question) was that given the corrupt political system that we Indians have, should one vote or not?

I was very vehement in stating that since everybody is corrupt, it is a good idea not to vote. At least, at the end of the day you would have the satisfaction of saying that I was no way a part of something that will eventually do much wrong.

Most of us agreed that the only solution was a focus on ethics…a system of education wherein one can understand the significance of values. And the hope rests in our generation…seeing more integrity of character enter into politics rather than being absorbed by the IIMs and IITs.

But the question still held. The change can’t come overnight; and the returns can only come in the future. So what should one do now? Vote or stay away?

One of the perspectives that surfaced was that we should all support the mission of values, which will be a continuous process; and as of now, vote for somebody who’s less corrupt. It sounded like a reasonable solution to me. It seemed like an answer. End of the day, I forgot about the whole discussion.

But today, as I was riding to appear in my exam, the thought came up again. The question felt sharper. Now the question was: HOW CAN ONE FIND OUT WHO IS LESS CORRUPT ?

Apart from being  very politically aware, there is no other way to uncover reality. And even then, the doubts may still linger. Are the media reporting facts or are they opinionated & biased?

Often, the choice is not – whether to vote for Madhu Koda or not? Those are high profile cases. In general we have lesser known candidates to choose from. One way to make up your mind is go by the political party’s name, make the inference based on its image. Another important question is that what is the standing of the candidate within the party? He may be a mere instruction follower (I refrain from using the word “puppet”).

I mean I can go on & on about the questions that the situation poses.

Also, corruption has no absolutes. Finding out who is less corrupt is almost impossible, and it is a very relative concept. Who’s better…the guy who ate a pie worth Rs. XXX crore out of the funds allocated for public welfare…or the guy whose negligence led to a mishap which killed XXX number of people? Mind you, the Rs. XXX crore also kills relentlessly;one can check the statistics on the number of deaths due to poverty and hunger; a glimpse:

I’m in a dilemma; I must admit. How do I carry out my responsibility and keep my conscience clear at the same time?  Hence, I beckon you all to come up with a solution.

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This is a famous quote of Pink Floyd.

All of us have dreams. All of us have an idea of how we want our life to be. We imagine and romanticize various situations in our life well before in advance. Because no matter how much we talk of living in the present all of us do think about future and plan it.

Some are concrete and practical plans but for the situations which are not in our hands, we, subconsciously, tend to make a rough idea of how that situation will unfold in our life.

For instance, we do imagine about our future love.

Whom we’ll meet or who will fall for us is not in anyone’s control. But as a young person, we do shape our own love stories in our mind.

Peer influence has a major role to play in this. When we see most of your friends or peer group hanging around with their girlfriends/boyfriends, we do tend to feel that someday I’ll be at their place and then it’s going to be like this.

Knowingly or unknowingly we do make an imagination of this need of ours. Then there may come a time when we feel that everyone has it and not me…intentionally or unintentionally we wait for that moment…that phase to come in our life.

And in case of love, during this waiting period whosoever comes across and shows interest, one feels yes it has come now. The search is over.

(The unpronounced feelings here are: Even I am in the league. I am not apart from the group)

And then in the relationship, the person tends to live the idea that he already had in his mind about his love life and not the real relationship.

We are in a hurry to live the phases that apparently everyone else is going through. We do not want to be left apart from not feeling what everyone else is feeling.

This stage usually happens when one is at the peak of his/her youth. The maturity of analyzing the real feelings or just the idea of experiencing those feelings comes with age and experience.

This viewpoint is to make one ponder about what happened and what is happening…It is not about making anyone skeptic about his/her relationship (if one is already into).

This is just to stop him/her for a moment…think and look inwards and ask…

Whether it is love or is it just the idea of being in love?

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Narration:-

Why do I feel like I don’t belong?
Sometimes feel like dying .

————————————————————————————–

Narration:-

I often think to quit from my life, because of studies pressure and my relationship with my girlfriend. What shall I do now?

Please guide me?

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Dear Gandhiji,

You left us 62 years ago. If you were still around, you would have been 140 years old. However, we have not forgotten you. You are on every banknote and most stamps. There are many statues of you. Prestigious roads in almost every city are named after you. Our politicians try to model themselves on you. They wear the fabric you promoted, they quote you at every instance, they’ve got a photograph of you in their office and some even eat and live like you. There are books, TV programmes and movies about you. Seriously, you’d be impressed at how much we still adore you.

However, there are things that won’t make you feel proud. The India you spent all your life making free, is far from free. True, the white guys are gone. But there are still millions of poor people. In 60 years, we are still among the poorest nations on earth. This lack of money leads to a lot of problems in healthcare, infrastructure and education. In education, for instance, many children still don’t go to a good school. Those who do, don’t get into good colleges. And those who go to college, don’t get good jobs. We need to get rich, and fast. Not only to make more schools and colleges, but also because most Indian problems are linked to lack of money. Yet, it is considered un-Indian to think that way. The young generation, which thinks like that, is considered materialistic and greedy. The older generation takes the moral high ground – slowness in work is termed patience, non-stop discussion and no action is called careful consideration and lack of improvement in standards of living is countered with claims about the need to live with austerity. And yes, in many cases politicians who speak like this claim to be your fanboys.

The younger generation wishes you could come down for one day and clarify these points. Is progress un-Indian? Is change bad? Is a desire to see my country as rich as some other nations materialistic? Is getting things done fast impatience? If you blessed our purpose of making a developed India, the job would become so much easier.

The young generation needs you down here for something else too. We have a new battle here, just like the one you fought with the British. The enemy is not so clear like it was in your case – the white people. Our enemy is the old school of thought, or rather the people who defend the old school of thought. They do this in the name of antique Indian policies, culture and values. You could help identify this enemy more clearly. Many people who are at the helm of affairs now have served India for decades, maybe with good intentions. But obviously, they don’t want to accept they screwed up. We wish they would though and we’d have a national day of shame. It won’t be easy, but from there we can make a new beginning. But they won’t, for they are in power. And to defend themselves and their ways, they don’t mind crushing the aspirations, ideas and talent of an entire generation.

Yes, there is a lot of talk of India being a young nation and youth power. However, youth power is the biggest myth going around India right now. Of course, youth has spending power – we can buy enough SIM cards, sneakers and fizzy drinks to keep many MNCs in business. But we do not have the power to change things. Can the youth get a new college opened? Can the youth ask the government to give tax incentives to MNCs to relocate jobs to smaller towns? No way. We are wooed, used but seldom heard. If you came down, you could unite us. You used religious festivals as social events and propagated your cause. You understood that people need entertainment to bind them. Perhaps, we could integrate colleges in the same way, link all colleges – maybe for their annual festivals – and the message of change could be channelled through them. We have amazing technology such as the Internet now.

You would use it so well. If the youth unites, there could actually be youth power.

With our purpose blessed, enemy identified and youth united – we could take the first steps towards the new Indian revolution. After all, China had one, and only after that, did they get on the path of true progress.

But if it is not feasible for you to come back, we’ll have to try to bring about change ourselves. If we can be inspired to do that, we can say we have not forgotten you and understand the meaning of your birthday. We hope you had a good one up there!

Lots of love,

the younger generation

(also known as Youngistan, Gen X, Gen Next and Gen Y depending on the brand you’re talking about)

The writer is a bestselling author

This article appeared on the Sunday TOI

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———————————————————————————————–

Growing pains? Not for Doon’s youngsters

Youth centre set up by Canadian in Dehradun has become a place where teens can give expression to their angst Atul Sethi |TNN

Should one have expectations from friends? This is the subject of an animated group discussion among a bunch of teenagers, at the Doon Youth Centre, located in the heart of Dehradun, off Rajpur Road. The discussion is being moderated by Ken McRae — a tall bright-eyed Canadian, who has made India his home since the last three decades. Incidentally, the centre — a place where youngsters can come, share their problems and try to arrive at solutions — is the latest among a series of projects that McRae has been involved in, since he came to India.

But, to begin his story from the beginning, McRae was a restaurant manager working in Toronto when he decided to take a break and travel the world. It was the 1970s — the time of the backpacking hippies — a young McRae soon joined their ranks and backpacked around the world for three years. In 1974, while he was in India, he had, as he puts it, a major life-changing moment. A missionary doctor — who was planning to go to inaccessible villages near Dehradun to provide medical aid to villagers — wanted volunteers. McRae joined him. As he started working with the doctor, he realized that there was great joy in doing something for other people. “All my life, I had been a self-centred person. I now found that there was greater satisfaction in giving,” he recollects.

Soon, McRae relocated to India and began working with orphans. For many years, he ran a school near Mussoorie for orphan village kids. In the late ’90s however, another incident happened that changed the direction of his work. The incident was the suicide of four youngsters – aged between 16 to 20 — all of whom belonged to upper middle class families and lived in an affluent locality in Dehradun. “These suicides made me realise the kind of apathy our society showed towards the problems faced by kids, irrespective of their socio-economic background,” says McRae. This incident also became an impetus for him to probe the problems that made youngsters take the extreme step of ending their lives and resulted in the formation of the Doon Youth Centre.

“The centre has been positioned not just as a counselling centre, but as a place where the youth can hang out,” says McRae. Accordingly, it has a variety of indoor games like table tennis, chess, carrom etc as well as a small library. “The objective is to create an informal and friendly atmosphere, where youngsters can work out problems through discussions with their peers as well as mentors,” says McRae.

Incidentally, all the services in the centre are free, with the rent for the premises as well as overheads being paid for by McRae and his family through the workshops that they conduct at various schools. McRae has an interesting explanation on why they have kept no charges at the centre. “The feedback that most kids gave us was that if services were not free, their parents wouldn’t allow them to come. Instead, they’ll ask them – why go to a centre to talk; why not talk to us?”

What most parents don’t realise, says Mc Rae, is that today’s youngsters grapple with a lot of issues — moral, psychological as well as academic. “The core problem in our society is that the value of a child is seen in accordance with the marks that he or she gets,” he says. “When a kid is not stressed about peer pressure or other growing up issues, academics fall into place. But all we do is expect results from them.”

Although McRae and his family have been keeping alive their work with youngsters with their own resources for many years now, they are beginning to feel a funds crunch. “I would like to open more youth centres where there are multiple activities since there is currently a huge shortage of places where kids can go. But right now, I find it difficult to even pay rent for this centre,” he says.

Perhaps it’s time our society realises the need to support the work of individuals like McRae. For, as the saying goes: ‘Only if we understand youth today, can we hope to empower them tomorrow’.

NEW WAY: Canadian McRae feels marks shouldn’t be the yardstick for success

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Attraction , Infatuation or Love’?

Is Boy-Girl Relationship an Issue?

1.  According to students’ feedback from single gender as well as co-ed Schools, most of them are affected by it from as early as junior classes and that the bar is getting lower.  Intensity of it continues even during college life.

2.  Essence of the issue boils down to developing a clear perspective on  attraction, infatuation & love viewed through the Prism of Values.

3.  Prism of Values: What is it? This prism helps one to understand the difference between Rights & Wrongs and develop the ability to follow the path of righteousness having objectively evaluated the consequences of choices.  It has to be self-implanted after working thru the maze of self doubts. Fact is that those without the prism in place are likely to be misguided by feelings and feel like helpless losers.

4.  Why is it an Issue?

• In this competing world of materialism, parents have very little time to interact with children to provide them emotional support. Thus most children with empty love tank remain vulnerable to peer pressure and develop immature understanding of relationship.
• Parents with conservative and traditional mind sets adopt an ostrich approach on the issue of sexuality and B-G relationship. Result, kids grow up with unhealthy attitude towards such relationship.
• In absence of credible source to clarify doubts, youth rely on unfiltered inputs from peers and media.
• Media influence (TV, internet, pornography) is so powerful that most teenagers learn to make choices without thinking of consequences be it violence, substance abuse and physical relationship. Intriguingly, they fail to realize that media never addresses negative consequences of choices.
• Warped value consensus of Money, Power & Status prevalent all around.
• With confusing inputs from elders (parents, relatives & teachers), kids grow up without a clear understanding whether it is good or bad to talk with the opposite sex?

Real Life Examples.

1.  Three class IX students were extremely worried about their performance in the ensuing annual examination. Distracted by girls and their revealing clothes, they were unable to concentrate on studies.  Was it attraction or infatuation or love?

2.  One late evening, a class VIII boy arrives at Doon Youth Center (DYC) seeking an urgent counseling session. While sitting down, he shared his ‘bhayankar’ depression.  His recent proposal was not only rejected by her, she has also snapped their friendship of 8 months.  The boy was planning to commit suicide if she did not speak to him by a certain date. Was it attraction or infatuation or love?

3.  One 17 year old girl was into relationship with a guy for few years. During this time she could sense that he was using her emotionally and financially by cooking up stories. Somehow she was unable to say NO to his frequent demands for money. Suddenly he started ignoring her. Unable to deal with her emotional struggle, she sought help at DYC. Was it attraction or infatuation or love?

4.  A class XII girl was asked to have sexual contact as a birthday gift to her boy friend. Was it attraction or infatuation or love?

Factors Affecting B/G Relationship.

1.  Clear understanding of the dynamics of boy-girl relationship needs to be worked out by each individual based on certain real life parameters having bearing on relationship. Once the factual aspects crystalise, a teenager is likely to be better equipped to deal with this crucial struggle of adolescence.  Obvious question, therefore, would be what are the factors that affect relationship?

2.  Few basic factors are:

a.   Do we respect each other? In other words do we respect perspective/choice of each other?

b.  Do we trust each other?

c.   Do we understand each other?

d.  Are we transparent in sharing feelings?

e.   Are we possessive of each other? In other words am I comfortable when my friend interacts with others irrespective of gender?

f.   Do we spend long hours in person or on telephone?

g.  Do I feel insecure when I am unable to keep contact with my partner?

h.  Am I able to disagree with my partner without hesitation?

i.    Are parents aware of our relationship?

j.    Do I feel weak while interacting with my partner?

Check List as a Ready Reckoner

By making use of the ready reckoner  it should be possible to identify the type of relationship in each case.

Conclusion.

1.  Whereas it is a natural phenomenon to feel attracted for the opposite sex, remaining distracted by it should raise alarm bells.  By inserting the prism of values in one’s thinking would enable an adolescent to manage his/her feelings to maintain a healthy relationship without getting distracted.

2.  In the existing circumstances, youth have no option but to empower themselves by raising their awareness level on issues that parents and teachers are not comfortable talking. They need to interact on such issues with someone of their choice so that they are equipped to deal with real life situations comfortably.

P.S. : A big hug and much thanks go out to Sushant who put this article together !

"This article is an original production of the Doon Youth Centre.
You may use it only for non-commercial purposes.
You may not edit the article.
The article must always be displayed as is,
wherever and whenever copied and/or used"

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I wonder whether Homosexuality is as big an issue in India as it is in the United States. I never really cared it about when I was in India; I guess I didn’t have to. None of my friends were homosexual and although I did hear gay jokes from time to time they never really meant anything different than any other jokes. And homosexuality being the taboo

subject that it is, wasn’t really talked about as much other stuff. Even in DYC where we talk about practically everything, from abortion to proactive-ism, homosexuality isn’t really something that is discussed. The closest I’ve come to having an actual discussion about it was when my parents, who are staunch Christians, told me that homosexuality is a sin and that the Bible condemns it. For the longest time I only thought about homosexuality in an abstract, I don’t really care kind of way.

In the six months that I’ve been here in the United States, however, I’ve had to deal with homosexuality in a much more personal way than I would have normally liked. Three of my closest friends here in college are LGBTQs (Translation = Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Questioning). Two are them are fairly stereotypical homosexuals. They act exactly as one would generally expect a gay or bisexual person to act like. Despite being fairly good friends with them I never actually did see homosexuality the way they did. It was only when my closest guy friend—a guy whom I almost got set up with(yes, as in the dating kind)—“came out” to me at the end of last year that I came face to face with this issue for real.

Francis[ actual name withheld ] isn’t really a stereotypical homosexual person. It actually took me a while to believe him when he told me that he was gay. Lesson # 1: Homosexuals are really not the way movies and books make us think they are. Francis[ actual name withheld ] is like any other guy of his age; he plays sports, he almost obsessively loves football, he dresses in jeans, t-shirts, sweatshirts and jackets, he has a relatively deep voice (no high pitched whining at all), he knows about more about current affairs and politics than I do and he’s a staunch activist of human rights. The only difference between Francis[ actual name withheld ] and any other guy of his age is his sexual preference. It seems a little unfair that I can announce that I find a guy attractive out loud and not get any reaction(except maybe a few agreements), but Francis[ actual name withheld ] can’t do the same without getting called a homo, a fag or even a pervert, even if people think that he’s joking.

I could hardly dare to say that having a gay best friend means that I can now understand homosexuals and their predicaments. On the contrary, the more I learn about homosexuality the more I realize how difficult it is for a straight/heterosexual person like me to really see the world the way they do. Homosexuals, even in a ‘liberal’ country like America are constantly facing discrimination. The common man in America is almost as superstitious about homosexuality as someone in India is about a black cat crossing one’s path (no offense to anyone who does believe that). Homosexuality is considered to be a disease, a mental disorder or even “God’s curse”. I recently watched a documentary called For The Bible Tells Me So”, which is a defense of homosexuality against the Christian way of thinking about it. It includes interviews with several sets of religious parents regarding their personal experiences raising homosexual children, and also interviews with those (adult) children. It also includes footage of anti-homosexuality rallies and has several very opinionated quotes that condemn homosexuality. Watching that footage made me wonder: If watching all that made me feel so queasy, what about the homosexual person against whom all that hate was directed? They must feel a million times worse than I do.

One of the most common beliefs about homosexuality is that it is a choice. Parents who find out that their child is homosexual send them for counseling and put them under medication in an effort to ‘de-gay’ them. I don’t think a homosexual can choose to be who he/she is more than I can choose to be straight. It’s just that socially it is not acceptable to be anything other than heterosexual. Legally a homosexual person has fewer rights than a heterosexual person, Gay marriages are not allowed in most of the states in the US—it seems interesting that the government is working harder to ban gay marriages than it is to deal with the ever increasing divorce rates; gay partners are not given the same rights as family members for hospital visitation and gay people getting appointed to high posts have to face death threats almost every day (case in point Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who had to wear a bullet proof vest under his robes when he was getting ordained, just in case.) I think that denying such rights to gay people is one of the grossest injustices being done in the world today. And trying to legalize this injustice is even more depraved than that. As Rita May Brown says: “No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.”

Even if homosexuality is a sin—which I personally don’t agree with any longer—it still doesn’t give heterosexual people the license to de-humanize them. Gay people are god’s creation, just as straight people are. I feel depriving homosexuals of any right that is given to a heterosexual people is what really should be called a sin. As Paul Newman put it: I’m a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either… There are so many qualities that make up a human being… by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private [lives] is probably so low on the list that it is irrelevant.

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Should one have expectations from friends? This is the subject of an animated group discussion among a bunch of teenagers, at the Doon Youth

Centre, located in the heart of Dehradun, off Rajpur Road. The discussion is being moderated by Ken McRae – a tall bright-eyed Canadian, who has made India his home since the last three decades. Incidentally, the centre – a place where youngsters can come, share their problems and try to arrive at solutions – is the latest among a series of projects that McRae has been involved in, since he came to India.

But, to begin his story from the beginning, McRae was a restaurant manager working in Toronto when he decided to take a break and travel the world. It was the 1970s – the time of the backpacking hippies – a young McRae soon joined their ranks and backpacked around the world for three years. In 1974, while he was in India, he had, as he puts it, a major life-changing moment. A missionary doctor – who was planning to go to inaccessible villages near Dehradun to provide medical aid to villagers – wanted volunteers. McRae joined him. As he started working with the doctor, he realized that there was great joy in doing something for other people. “All my life, I had been a self-centred person. I now found that there was greater satisfaction in giving,” he recollects.

Soon, McRae relocated to India and began working with orphans. For many years, he ran a school near Mussoorie for orphan village kids. In the late ’90s however, another incident happened that changed the direction of his work. The incident was the suicide of four youngsters – aged between 16 to 20 – all of whom belonged to upper middle class families and lived in an affluent locality in Dehradun. “These suicides made me realise the kind of apathy our society showed towards the problems faced by kids, irrespective of their socio-economic background,” says McRae. This incident also became an impetus for him to probe the problems that made youngsters take the extreme step of ending their lives and resulted in the formation of the Doon Youth Centre.

“The centre has been positioned not just as a counselling centre, but as a place where the youth can hang out,” says McRae. Accordingly, it has a variety of indoor games like table tennis, chess, carrom etc as well as a small library. “The objective is to create an informal and friendly atmosphere, where youngsters can work out problems through discussions with their peers as well as mentors,” says McRae.

Incidentally, all the services in the centre are free, with the rent for the premises as well as overheads being paid for by McRae and his family through the workshops that they conduct at various schools. McRae has an interesting explanation on why they have kept no charges at the centre. “The feedback that most kids gave us was that if services were not free, their parents wouldn’t allow them to come. Instead, they’ll ask them – why go to a centre to talk; why not talk to us?”

What most parents don’t realise, says Mc Rae, is that today’s youngsters grapple with a lot of issues -moral, psychological as well as academic. “The core problem in our society is that the value of a child is seen in accordance with the marks that he or she gets,” he says. “When a kid is not stressed about peer pressure or other growing up issues, academics fall into place. But all we do is expect results from them.”

Although McRae and his family have been keeping alive their work with youngsters with their own resources for many years now, they are beginning to feel a funds crunch. “I would like to open more youth centres where there are multiple activities since there is currently a huge shortage of places where kids can go. But right now, I find it difficult to even pay rent for this centre,” he says.

Perhaps it’s time our society realises the need to support the work of individuals like McRae. For, as the saying goes: ‘Only if we understand youth today, can we hope to empower them tomorrow’.

Original article can be found here

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