Pathanamthitta, Kerala: Yuletide reached Moozhiyar forests in Pathanamthitta district on Friday when Mar Baselius Kakkad Development Society (MBKDS) attached to the Syro Malankara Catholic Church celebrated Christmas with the tribespeople there.
The society volunteers, led by its executive director Fr Christy Thevallil, called on the tribal families staying in the temporary sheds in the forest interiors of Moozhiyar, offering them Christmas cakes, sweets, new clothes, and grocery kits.
According to Fr Thevallil, the society has been conducting medical camps and relief works in the tribal hamlets of Moozhiyar as and when needed for the past several years. He said the society was planning to give training to the tribal folk in the manufacture of soap and agarbathi as part of its tribal empowerment programme.
Fr Thevallil said uplift of the tribal people was the main motto of the MBKDS. He said the society also gave equal importance for women empowerment, doling out education aid for children belonging to economically weaker sections of the society, cancer care for the needy, wheel chair distribution as part of the welfare of the physically challenged people, ambulance service, etc.
Lekha Suresh, Seethathode grama panchayat president; Beena Mohan, ward member; Thomas Thevarolil, society secretary, and Sunil Kumar, Moozhiyar tribal school teacher, were also present.
source: DNA