TRCYW Maathi Yosi Report 2019 | Page 3

Foreword Maathi Yosi 2019 – TRC Youth Wing’s inaugural youth seminar was born out of mere spontaneity, guided by overwhelming curiosity. As youths ourselves, we did not, and continue not to, condone the larger community’s perception that our Tamil youths are unmotivated, and they do not come forward to participate in, less contribute to, the community and its engagement efforts. It was driven, primarily, by our desire to get to know better our fellow youths and their opinions on matters that matter. We administered a Ground Survey sometime in September 2018, and used the statistics to inform our planning of Maathi Yosi. Now to the present, the findings team has put an incredulous amount of effort in compiling the findings just within one month from the completion of Maathi Yosi. The findings have been compiled after analysing sentiments from both the Ground Survey (quantitative) and Maathi Yosi (qualitative). This has allowed us to probe further into the issues that surfaced, and build on the proposed recommendations. So, now what? Well, Maathi Yosi is testament to TRC Youth Wing’s serious commitment to championing a change in our community. We have done our part, and will continue to do so, in whatever ways we can. Our goal is very simple: to unite the youth bodies to work towards uplifting the social, economic and educational status of our Tamil community. In doing so, we encourage a positive ecosystem where we are mutually interdependent and can come together to collaborate, where there is potential, to ensure effective usage of resources and funds. There are many recommendations in this booklet, and TRC Youth Wing, as much as we aspire, will not be able to see all recommendations to fruition. We hope that youth bodies and community organisations can come on board to adopt these recommendations, and collaborate with TRC Youth Wing in fulfilling them. We look forward to your support! Maathi Yosi is not a novel idea – there have been many talks, dialogues, seminars, conferences. But Maathi Yosi’s methodologies are new, its objectives were untainted and it was fueled by the energy of an entire team that aspires to inspire. It was the single question, that sparked Maathi Yosi. It was the desire to uplift the community, that guided Maathi Yosi. It was the curiosity to hear our youths’ voices, that propelled Maathi Yosi. It was the commitment and hard work of every single member that spurred Maathi Yosi. It was friendship that fueled Maathi Yosi. It was our youths, who made Maathi Yosi possible. இனி ஒரு விதி! ARUN VASUDEV KRISHNAN CHAIRMAN TRC YOUTH WING 2