|
 From
Kolkata To Kabwe
By Chris Jayakaran
I was shopping at Shoprite in Kabwe
the other day when I saw a diminutive Indian nun clad in a
distinctive white sari with blue border, a trade mark of The
Missionaries of Charity. As I greeted her she, with a ready smile,
wanted to know if I was new to Kabwe and introduced herself as Sr.
Maria Julia in charge of the Home they run. In the vein of welcoming
me she said that their home was about 3 km out of the town and there
were seven more of them from different parts of the world and
suggested that I visit them.
I have been greatly impressed with the
work of this Order whose primary task is to love and care for those
persons nobody was prepared to look after. The order Missionaries of
Charity was founded by Mother Teresa in 1950. Mother Teresa was born
in an Albanian family in 1910 in Macedonia and was named Agnes
Gonxha Bojaxhiu. When she was eighteen she joined the Irish Sisters
of Loreto community and after her training in Dublin was sent to
India where she took her vows as a nun in 1931. Until 1948 she
taught at St, Mary’s High School in Calcutta, (since renamed Kolkata)
when the abject poverty and squalor she noticed outside the convent
walls left a lasting impression and she decided to leave the convent
to work among the slum dwellers of Calcutta. Though she did not have
funds, she started open air classes for slum children and later on
was joined by volunteers. In 1950, Mother Teresa received permission
to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity” and in 1965
the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of
Pope Paul VI. The service of Mother Teresa’s for the needy spanned
across international boundaries to troubled spots of the world.
Mother Teresa traveled to assist and minister to the hungry in
Ethiopia, radiation victims at Chernobyl and earthquake victims in
Armenia. She rescued 37 children trapped in a front line hospital in
1982 during the siege in Beirut. She expanded her efforts to
communist countries that had previously rejected the Missionaries of
Charity. Mother Teresa gained international prominence as an
advocate for the poor and helpless and won the Nobel Peace Prize in
1979 for her humanitarian work. Ranked as the most admired person of
the 20th century Mother Teresa died when she was 87 years old on 5th
Sep 1997 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in October 2003.
 At the time of her death, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity
had over 4,000 sisters, an associated brotherhood of 300 members,
and over 100,000 volunteers, operating 610 missions in 123
countries. These included hospices and homes for people with
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and orphanages and schools. They provide
effective help to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries
in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and undertake relief work in the
wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics and famine.
The order also has houses in North America, Europe and Australia,
where they take care of alcoholics, AIDS sufferers and the homeless.
I was happy to notice that they had homes in Zambia, which is my
second home.
I had a bit of difficulty locating the
home for the sisters in Kabwe which was not sign-posted among the
many farm houses. Finally I reached a simple looking place, after
making few enquiries at two farm houses nearby. The wall by the side
of the gate bore an insignificant writing which said “Mother Teresa
Home of Joy”, the appropriateness of which I realized after a short
tour of the Home and the services being offered here. In India such
homes are generally called Nirmal Hriday which means Sacred Heart in
Hindi. As I was waiting to be ushered in, I heard the gentle prayers
being offered by the nuns in the chapel and could distinguish the
peace prayer of St. Francis. Mother Teresa was an admirer of St.
Francis of Assisi who emphasised poverty and devoted much of his own
life to serve the poor. The influences of Franciscan spirituality
were evident in her life and mission. I understood later on, that
her sisters say the peace prayer of St. Francis and many of the vows
since their ministry reflects the same approach.
When I was there, the sister in-charge was dispensing medicines and
offered to take me around the wards. There are about 120 men and
women in their medical care facility. Many of them are HIV positive,
but with ARV medication and nutritious food, they regain health and
confidence. Then they were shifted to another section where they
have their own activities. As I entered the men’s ward they greeted
me in a chorus and sang a welcome song in Bemba peppered with a few
English words. This was very touching. There were a couple of men
who were very sick and at the threshold of death. The care given to
the destitute and dying is exemplary in this. I realized that the
driving force behind palliative care is the desire to transform the
experience of dying.
When I went through the children’s ward, in one section I saw a few
children with emaciated bodies and looking much smaller than their
age. I was told many of them were Kwashiorkor and Marasmus patients.
“It is important to treat not only the symptoms but also the
complications of these disorders which lead to high mortality if
ignored” explained the Sister. There were a couple of children who
were only few days old. I saw the children who were treated and
given a good diet. I could see the difference this had made to them,
that together with tender care. Two bright eyed, one year old
children and a pair of twins were in a playful mood and they reached
out from their cribs to the Nun who was giving equal attention to
them all. The section where the children were being taken care of
was called Sishu Bhavan , which means Children’s Home in Hindi. They
are never referred to as Orphanages. Playing among them was a ten
year old girl with a disfigured face and hand. Sr. Julia explained
that the child was struck by lightning and had survived the strike
and was being cared for in this home. As I came out of this part of
the Home, I was shown the school run by the sisters where about 200
children, from the nearby homesteads, were being educated. Most of
them were over aged children who were taught up to Grade 6 after
which they were sent to regular schools.
I walked around the compound and noticed that they grew a few
vegetables and the garden was tended by the workers, whom the sister
pointed out, were ex-patients. Many of them were once stigmatised
and ignored by society, including their own families, because of
their tryst with HIV, but here they were doing normal work, being
rehabilitated in this home. Unlike some programmes which comes with
a lot of fanfare, the kind of work the Missionaries of Charity do
quietly, at the grass root level, would bring in change in the
society and the impact will be profound in the long run.
My admiration for the Missionaries of Charity started when I saw
Mother Teresa in India way back in the seventies and later on when I
saw the work of her order near my home in India where they ran an
orphanage for abandoned children. I developed a deep sense of
admiration for her order, for their sense of commitment, service and
simplicity. Their work depended purely on donations and charity. In
the eighties in Sierra Leone, in a crowded street in Freetown, I saw
a person lying by the roadside and I was warned by my friend about
the possible problems if I were to assist him. Later on I visited
the Home for the destitute and dying that the Missionaries of
Charity were running and I narrated this incident to the nun
responsible and her immediate response was “why did you not carry
him and bring him here?” I realized that we all go through this
‘something should be done’ stage but we do not get to the next
stage, to intervene in a crisis situation that might make all the
difference between life and death. One needs to have total
commitment and adequate courage to be a Good Samaritan, an attitude
which comes to these Missionaries of Charity as a second nature.
Though many of us may praise their work, we are not capable of
giving alms to a beggar and I wonder how little many of us do to
help the poor and the homeless. |
June
2007