Church works to educate families in India's poor mining region

Published: 2008-01-03

KOLAR GOLD FIELDS, India (CNS) -- The Catholic Church has been working in this mining city to educate families and mitigate their difficulties after the collapse of the mining industry, their source of income for more than 100 years. Patrick Arokiadas, secretary of Our Lady of Victory Parish at Champion Reef Mine in Kolar Gold Fields, is also the volunteer principal of a community college attached to the church in India's southern Karnataka state. Apart from supervising the job-oriented training courses for local youths at the college, Arokiadas' job as principal includes making the 60-mile trip to Bangalore to identity prospective employers for his hotel management and catering students. "In the first year (2005), we managed placement for 12 of 34. (The) next year, it was 14," Arokiadas told Catholic News Service. He said almost all the students from the community college got jobs in Bangalore and other city centers. "We are trying to help the miner families in every way possible," said Arokiadas, pointing out the three community colleges started by the church.

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