fbpx

The Matrix Mission is in Atoor, a modest town in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu State, the southern tip of India. Working in partnership with Fr Maria, a priest of the diocese of Trivandrum, the Lumen Christi College Community helps to provide a home, food, clothing and education for 26 boys who live at the Matrix.
Each boy has their own particular story of hardship. Some have lost one or both parents, the family circumstances of others mean they are unable to properly care for and access education for their sons.
The partnership began in 2004, following the Boxing Day Tsunami which devastated so much of the coastal region of Tamil Nadu. The relationship has continued to flourish since that time.
Since 2006, a contingent of Lumen staff and students has made a biannual Matrix Immersion visit to Atoor. The Matrix Immersion provides an introduction to Indian culture and allows young people from two very different worlds to meet share stories and grow in friendship. In the process they realise that what they have in common is far more precious than the wealth and inequality which separates them.
In addition to supporting the boys at the Mission financial support given by the College has assisted in the development of outreach work in the region. This includes money to help women set up the co-operative ventures to help them move beyond the cycle of poverty which entraps so many.