year old Indian human resource manager, P. Justin Anthony, has an insatiable passion to serve his compatriots. Since he arrived here in Saudi Arabia in 2010 to work as division manager for an international company based in Jubail, he has been conducting awareness sessions with the estimated 3,000 Indian fishermen in Jubail, Qatif, Dammam, educating and advising them to save their hard-earned money. Many of the Indian fishermen who work here in the coastal areas of Eastern Province are poor and illiterate and most do not know the value and benefits of savings, according to Antony. “At the end of the day, most of these fishermen are unable to save and impress upon their families back home the necessity and importance of saving for rainy days,” Antony told Saudi Gazette. He said he is meeting these fishermen during weekends, conducting sessions and dialogue and explaining to them how they could save money. Back in India, before venturing to work here in the Gulf region, Antony was very active in helping the poor, earning him much appreciation for his services to the community. He had conducted saving sessions with fishermen in the coastal regions of Kanya Kumari and Trivandrum and also guided unemployed youth to get jobs in their communities. Now he is replicating those experiences from India here in Saudi Arabia to help poor Indian laborers. Antony's social support program has also been highlighted with his advocacy of doing away with dowry system within the fishermen community of Kanya Kumari and Trivandum. Families of fishermen in these coastal region have been awakened with the “devils of dowry system,” Antony says, and has instead embraced the proposal suggested by him that a boy's parents won't demand huge amounts as dowry and will share a portion of it with the girl's family. “The no-dowry-but-share system I advocated has helped parents of girls to start saving for the future of their daughter and has also encouraged fathers to give up alcoholism, smoking, and gambling,” Antony said. Since his deployment at the industrial city of Jubail about a year ago, Antony has not only been educating Indian fishermen to save. He is also active in the Indian community, giving motivational lectures at social service clubs on internationally accepted values and conducting quizzes with students on the concept of paying back to the society what they would earn in life. As a member of the Jubail Toastmasters Club, he is also involved in communication and leadership development programs, tackling social issues like the anti-drug campaign. “Though I have garnered many awards and recognitions, including the Guinness record for the longest motivational theatrical performance in 2006 (72 hours) and have been honored by the United Nations for my motivational book ‘Sky is the Limit', my heart belongs to the poor and the underprivileged,” he remarked. “Here in Saudi Arabia, many of my compatriots need help, like these poor and illiterate fishermen who are often exploited and unable to save their earnings because they lack the know-how to secure their financial future. I am trying my best to guide them to the right path for their sake and that of their families back home in India.”
