Upliftment of people can be on several fronts; economic, social, educational and so on. There is never enough upliftment going on in society and the poor lag behind for generations to come.
Giving the poor opportunities – quotas and the like – is one way governments follow as it is the quick and easy way out. It costs the Government much less but does damage to society when merit does not play a role in allotting quotas. The quality of throughput may suffer thus impacting all of society.
However, at the very base of all upliftment is education.
As generation after generation of the poor get education, not only do opportunities open up, but also the quality of their life at home.
JS, the Founder of Alateen Foundation, began working with alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous when he joined AA in 1984. Since then, starting with one-on-one mentoring (referred to as Sponsoring in AA), he moved on to Group Workshops in 2008. Soon a close friend joined him and they have since conducted de-addiction workshops based on the 12 Steps of AA and as of 2021, over 4,000 individuals have attended such workshops.
These workshops are all pro-bono.
Participants share the costs of hosting the workshops (Tradition 7 of AA) and JS & Friend spend their own funds for travel, boarding & lodging, apart from other related expenses.
This is the origin of Alateen Foundation dedicated to the upliftment of children from poor and very poor families, with special focus on the families afflicted by alcoholism & addiction.
JS’s other efforts include education in basic investment awareness and financial planning & prudence.
To sum up, Alateen Foundation’s Vision is:
