Today we went to a place not even known by most of the residents living in Mauritius. We met the people who are living below poverty line. In Mauritius to imagine that such place exist was shocking. Being a tourist I was thinking and as according to my search on Mauritius I have not seen anything or any website mentioning these areas. Maybe my search was not focused on these areas as its Image was shown to the world that it is a perfect Holiday destination and yes it is, but this side of this beautiful holiday destination was altogether invisible.

We have seen people there living in the area that is having no basic facilities at all, it is lacking in hygiene and totally unhealthy environment. They are living in houses that don’t even have toilets and most people are using the same room as their living room, toilet and kitchen. It was very sad to see that their health is totally compromised either by the Government or by the relevant authorities which ignored these areas. After living in this situation for long they become used to it and does not want anyone to intervene in a way of their living. They have tuned their mind to this living style and maybe they think that it’s better to live like this rather living like privileged people. Maybe ignorance have affected them a lot and they are disappointed with the other communities and this disappointment could be the cause of their rigid attitude towards others.

YUVA (Youth United and Voluntary Action) has already put up a lot of efforts to help deprived people in Mauritius and they are working quite well to give awareness to the people all over the world by conducting different motivational and educational conferences. They have provided the opportunity to delegates to see and observe how these deprived people are managing their lives in extreme low salaries or even no earnings. Practically this visit is arranged to donate clothes to these people, but conceptually it was not merely a donation but was something big.

In my point of view, their mindset should be the target. They should be given awareness about good or bad. By helping these people YUVA is giving them HOPE that YES they can have all the facilities which are the basic needs of human. They can make their condition improve by putting some efforts and positive attitude towards the life. As YUVA is making them smile for a bit by merely donating clothes, then this smile can become the permanent part of their lives by giving them hope and hand to pull them from darkness of disappointment to light of life.

By Rana Muhammad Ali