Youngs Club, giving hope to the hopeless

For somebody who dropped out of school because his family could not afford it, Jenpu Rongmei has come a long way. He has stood firm in pursuing the dream of his childhood, which is to serve people; and he has gone on to achieve it, acknowledging still, that it was by the sheer grace of God.

He did not look back and he did not give in to the financial constraints that his family had, because as they say, there is always a way for someone who has the will. “Youngs Club” was born out of many struggles and hard work but it’s got the most beautiful story to tell. Jenpu formed the club in 2010 in memory of his younger brother who died as a victim of drugs. His efforts that began to pay off in 2010, dates back to a humble beginning in 2000 when he started involving himself in youth activities in his locality, voluntarily engaging himself for the welfare of the students and the community at large.

Coming across a number of school drop-outs, who eventually got frustrated and as a result indulged themselves in anti-social activities including drug abuse, Jenpu began by motivating them in his own little way. He asserts that he was not highly qualified but it does not come as a surprise that he was recognized by his own students’ community and hence, served as an executive member. Much as he wanted to study further, his financial condition at home did not allow him, which, he confesses was hurtful.

In 2004, he started visiting offices of NGOs, collecting information on HIV/AIDS, Youth Development and how to work on community service notwithstanding the fact that he was given a cold shoulder several times. However during 2005, he started working at an NGO as a Peer Outreach Worker in the UNODC project at Bethesda Youth welfare centre. One could say 2006 was a painful year for him as he lost his brother to drugs that year and felt like he lost everything. But it was also then, he started focusing more on the youths, drug users and alcoholics alike.

“I started talking about drugs at home, family circle, youth programs and even in sport activities but could not do independently since I was working under an organization, and so, in the year 2010, I took a bold decision to do something for the youths, especially for the dropout students…I couldn’t save my own brother from drugs but took a challenge to spread awareness to other youths to abstain from drugs”, he thoughtfully expresses.

He insists that it was with the help of his close friends and younger sister that Youngs’ Club was formed on 22^nd August, 2010 with the motto ‘Let’s give hope’. Youngs Club gives support to young people and drop-out students to engage themselves in community service, organize various youth programs, events, sports, workshops etc,  helping them abstain from anti social activities and to become self responsible in every field.

Well, today, that same school drop-out, who couldn’t afford to study all he wanted, has many enriching experiences tucked under his belt. He has worked at the United Nation’s Office for Drugs and Crime H- 13 Project at Bethesda Youth Welfare Centre, worked on the Targeted Intervention Project on truckers at NEDHIV, he was also selected at CLLJ for  the youth mentoring and development program at Delhi, served as Information secretary of Dimapur District Voluntary Blood Donors Association, attended several workshops, conferences and trainings outside Nagaland such as the Youth Leadership in Kolkata 2013, Northeast training on voluntary blood donation at Mizoram in 2013, Human Rights workshop at Shillong  2012, Drugs conference on searching the truth and solution at Guwahati 2013, and Nagaland’s own event, Indian Himalaya Youth Summit at Kisama. Meanwhile, Youngs Club also distinguished itself by earning the title, Most Trusted Partner of Voluntary Blood Donation by district hospital blood bank in the year 2012 apart from receiving the Nagaland state best youth club award 2013 from Nehru Yuva Kendra.

Jenpu, who starts a new day with hope and faith has a special corner for downtrodden children, who have no proper education, proper food, proper health facilities even as he emphasizes that ‘every child is beautiful, rich or poor.’ His heart also goes out for dropout students while observing that the society only talks about educated unemployed, and questions, what about drop out students, should we just leave them? “They have the talent but lack opportunity’, he says and regretfully adds that ‘most people always target drop-out students for wrong doings…the problem is that the society don’t accept them’.

Yet, when it comes to his most fulfilling moment, he is happy to share about a girl he sponsored, completing her Theological Studies apart from another dropout Student, who changed his lifestyle by participating in his programs and activities, and is currently working in Kerala.

It isn’t hard to see why Jenpu has come this far. Hard work does pay off and he has certainly shown the courage to live a well cherished dream, even as the thriving social worker leaves with some food for thought- “Take your own decisions, take control! Be self responsible...Live not only for you but live for others (society).”

Some of his Projects:

Initiated and started “Project Care & Hope”, a home based care support project for children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, Drug abuse and alcoholic parents. Besides, it also supports children from downtrodden background for those who want to continue studies. With no funding agency for this project, Jenpu manages with his team by identifying the child and reaching out to the community, sharing the painful stories of those children. People touched by their stories sponsor these children. Presently, most of the members of Naga Blog are supporting the children under Care and Hope.

‘Discover Positive’: ‘Discover Positive’ project aims to enable school/College drop-outs and underprivileged youths to transcend from dependency to independency by facilitating them to face challenges whilst enhancing their talents/abilities for a productive life. ‘Discover Positive’ is to reach out to the young people, especially dropout students and underprivileged youth and to give them determination to discover their positive challenge towards a better life, to explore their talents to, develop their capacity, become sociable, involve themselves in a youth program and other community service so as to abstain from Anti-Social Activities.