A Facebook page ANM with a Goan slang was formed back in 2011 by Gaurav Phadte with a motive on how it can reach to today's youth on social awareness mixed with environmental issues.
"Our reach is wide among Goan youth and that's why, seeing that we could influence a lot of Goan youth, we decided to start social drives. We started off by cleaning the entire Mapusa bus stand. Just a bunch of 6 young kids who had hopes for a better tomorrow. We went on to clean and fix many Goan places which were dirty and spoiled by our society. Our big break came during the ISL when for the first season, we started a cleaning drive at the Fatorda Stadium itself.," said Rohit Pagi. Other members are Veer Naik, Abhilash Kumar and Uddhav Shetye.
As soon as they shared this on social media it went viral , and was retweeted by many celebrities including the Prime Minister himself. Slowly the popularity grew even more and they had hundreds of people joining in to clean the stadium after every game. They didn't stop at cleaning, for a better society and for better living, they started many other drives like the hunger drives, donation drives, where they would pick up food and just go around distributing it to the poor and the homeless across Goa. While they have covered places like Panaji, Margao and Vasco their recent drive at Mapusa went viral with people offering to help out in future drives. "Nobody deserves to sleep hungry. Help those in need and we can build a better world for everyone," added Gaurav.
They had a successful rice distribution campaign for last Ganesh Chaturthi and they are already planning a bigger campaign this year.
Further, they are working on how they can get reach out to these families during Diwali, which is just two months away. "So far we have fed thousands of people in Goa over the years. We carry out food donation drives for animals too. Even tree plantation. Basically, everything that can help make Goa more beautiful. We also had talking drives where people can talk about absolutely anything they wanted to," added Gaurav.
They have also helped Ganga Patil, a Aldona resident whose house burned down recently due to a cylinder blast. "Our post on our Facebook page helped us to collect Rs 35,000. While the final expenses were much higher, we somehow managed to put everything in place so far," added Gaurav.
The group also promotes local Goan businesses and showcases local talent, in fields of photography, music, art and dance among others.
"Our motive is not to get famous. We do it to set example for today's youth. We want others to get inspired with our work, doing the kinds of things that can help people feel better. Every youth must know their contributions are valued and how they can make this world a better place. We are trying to motivate the entire state to get involved in such initiatives," added Pagi.
Speaking about their next plan of action, the group informs that they have planned to collect old and discared clothes from people all over Goa and distribute it across orphanages.
