Ernakulam: Young Yadukrishna P and his friends were motivated by Gandhiji’s words, “be the change you want to see in the world”; and ultimately, their proactive work garnered a tweet from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yadu and his friends were in class 12 when they first thought of converting their passion for football into something productive. After a brainstorming session, they struck on the idea of a cleanup drive that they named ‘Let’s football, let’s clean up’. The plan was to make sure that the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium remained clean after every match.

The youngsters’ initiative was spurred on by Modi’s launch of the Swacch Bharath mission. “We thought of doing something along those lines,” says Yadu.

They started with seven people who got together to clean the stands after the first Indian Super League (ISL) match. The picture they posted on Facebook gained a thousand likes and many came forward to be part of the noble cause. Today, the group has become bigger, and has received recognition even from all the players and officials of Kerala Blasters, the state’s ISL team.

The seven ‘cleaners’ in the first match grew to 30 in the next, and 40 after the third match. The youth are happy about the response, but it was Modi’s tweet about their activities truly put them on cloud nine.