One of the houses in the Three Cent Colony at Rayamangalam near Perumbavoor

KOCHI: Flex boards of celebrity soccer heroes , like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, whose teams have been ousted from the World Cup, would soon come handy for mending the leaking homes of the poor in a colony in the village of Rayamangalam.

The idea for using the flex boards, erected by football fans, for roof repair came from National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers of Adisankara Institute of Engineering and Technology (AIET) after they visited the village as part of Swachh Bharat intership and witnessed pathetic condition of the houses in the colony. “There are around 15-20 houses in the colony constructed some 20 years ago. Toilets of these houses are in an untidy and dilapidated condition,” said Blesson Paul, coordinator of NSS team which visited the colony.

The roofs of these houses are leaking while most toilets don’t have a roof at all, he said. “The most embarrassing fact is that none of them have applied for projects which give financial support for constructing toilets and maintenance of houses. They aren’t even aware of the fact that there are such projects,” Paul said.

The NSS team has started a campaign through social media seeking the cooperation of football fans for providing flex boards. “We can see flex boards depicting heroes of world renowned teams in every nook and corner of each village and town in the state. The World Cup has advanced to quarter finals and most teams have gone out of the mega event. We request the fans to give such flex boards to us for mending the roofs of these houses. We already have some response. In the coming days, we ourselves would mend the roofs of these houses using the flex boards,” Blesson said.

They are also planning to help process the applications of these families for securing financial aids from different agencies and government for maintenance of houses and toilets. “Our plan is to help them secure aid from agencies like Suchitwa Misison. First, we would be repairing the roofs and then will move to helping them securing financial aid,” Blesson said.

Recently, the central government has launched the Swachh Bharat Summer Internships-2018 aiming at enrolling students for promoting swachhata (cleanliness) in villages.

As per the programme, students can select a village of their choice, and work with the village community for building a lasting system for improving the overall sanitation and hygiene in the village. Those implement excellent projects will be rewarded with cash prizes up to Rs two lakh.

