‘We believe that every one is a child of God’

Thu, 30 Nov 2000 18:30:00 +0000

Mukta Jeevan Hospital, Shahpur

Ninety kilometres from Mumbai, in Shahpur taluka near the powerloom town of Bhiwandi, 13 nuns from The Helpers of Mary congregation work tirelessly at the Mukta Jeevan hospital and rehabilitation centre “to give people a second life and chance”.

About 300 persons, who are victims of the Hansen disease (most of us know them as ‘leprosy’ patients or ‘lepers’), apart from children of HIV positive parents, who are also innocent victims of the incurable disease, are cared for with dignity and respect. The complex also provides a roof to senior citizens discarded by their families and ignored by society.

As a centre for leprosy patients, the MJH believes in liberating life from leprosy through modern scientific medicine, from deformity through reconstructive surgery and from hopelessness through counselling.

While mass at the central chapel that forms the backdrop of the complex is a regular affair open to all, the evening bhajans, where a mixture of devotional songs in Marathi and Hindi are sung, is where all the participants join in every evening.

Over 90 per cent of the persons living at the Mukta Jeevan complex are non–Christians; a small and caring haven in Shahpur since 1987. Regular benefactors from different communities deposit clothes, grain and other gifts in kind both at Diwali and Christmas.

At the height of the current hate campaign against Christian institutions last year, the marriage by Vedic rites of Baliram Ganchak (32) and Laxmi Jeevan (28) made headline news in the national press. “Souls meet, faiths marry at Shahpur hospice” was how one news report colourfully described how 12 Christian nuns helped arrange the ritual at which the nervous couple took the plunge as a pundit chanted his shlokas, standing shoulder to shoulder with the guests as they sprinkled the holy akshata on the couple.

“We believe that everyone is a child of God, not a Hindu, Muslim or Christian. And we also need to remember that just because someone has leprosy the need to love and be loved is not diminished.’’

“The nuns are like parents to me,’’ Laxmi, the bride had then told the media. Little surprise then that it was the nuns who performed the kanyadaan. Established by the Helpers of Mary in 1987, the Vehloli centre (more home than hospice) has till date treated 85,748 out–patients and 2,116 in–patients.

The Helpers of Mary, which works with people from various sections of society, runs 46 centres countrywide, 19 of them in Mumbai. Three of these are homes for leprosy patients.

Says sister Leela, “We believe that everyone is a child of God, not a Hindu, Muslim or Christian. And we also need to remember that just because someone has leprosy the need to love and be loved is not diminished.’’

Like most of the others at the centre, Baliram and Laxmi have nowhere to else go. Says Sr Leela, “We try to send them back home as far as possible because re–integrating them with their families and communities is the best thing after they’re cured. But this is impossible for many of them as they are destitute and homeless.”

Which is why the centre, which has two 76–bed wards for men and women respectively, is a permanent home to several patients who have long since been cured. Apart from the wards, the centre houses a hospital, where specialists from outside administer treatment. Every time a couple gets married, the nuns present the woman with a mangalsutra, a hamper, a few utensils and a home. The latter, which are furnished, unattached rooms, stand amid a riot of colours and greenery on sprawling grounds.

The cured leprosy patients are given job opportunities in an attached complex that houses a workshop, a weaving centre, welding centre, farm and garden, dairy farm and poultry. Young men who are cured are sent to the Nashik Leprosy Mission centre for training in driving, motor repair, printing and tailoring.

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Victory over Poverty

Thu, 30 Nov 2000 18:30:00 +0000

St Vincent de Paul Society

While the name given to it by the young Catholic students who founded it in Paris in 1833 is the St Vincent de Paul Society (patron saint of charities), modern day members would like to remind newcomers of the true meaning of SVP — service for victory over poverty.

To renew the church’s commitment to work for the marginalised, Indian branches of the SVP have been active since 1863. In Mumbai, there is a unit of the SVP active in many of the parishes, adopting families, encouraging them to become self–reliant and on a larger scale, setting up leprosy hospitals and homes, and an Aids hospice to provide treatment and a home for families affected by HIV/Aids.

Encouraging traditional talents has also been part of the focus of the SVP. An early scheme begun in the late 19th century was a project to encourage the traditionally highly reputed pottery on the island of Moolampally. The SVP unit called the Verapoly Central Council began this.
Presently, the society runs tailoring and embroidery classes, education schemes, handicraft centres, small scale agricultural projects, the distribution of goats and cows for dairy produce, schemes for knitting of fishing nets, providing fishing boats and nets, homes for the homeless, medical clinics, homes for the aged, and holding eye camps. All activities concerned with self–empowerment and livelihood, in a nutshell.

As far back as 1885, one of the first leprosy homes set up in the country was the one founded by the St Vincent de Paul Society, in Trombay, a Mumbai suburb. The home was erected on a palatial property donated by the well–known Albless family of Bombay and subsequently conveyed to the Society as a gift in trust to be used for a lepers’ asylum.

This was the beginning of the Eduljee Framjee Albless Leprosy Home a major medical relief centre. Since 1992, both men and women are being admitted as indoor patients here.

Apart from the dispersed activities within the 80–odd parishes of the Mumbai Archdiocese — adopting families, providing material and other aid with an aim to encourage self–reliance — the Shanty Bhuwan, Home for the Aged, located at Kalyan and the newly–conceived, 15–bed Aids Hospice (constructed in 1996) at Trombay, today constitute it’s major presence in the region.

Ninety per cent of the ‘beneficiaries’ of all the society’s schemes are non–Christians even though funds for the construction of the Aids Hospice or for any of the other social service projects or schemes are collected largely from the Christian community.

The last fund–raiser by the SVP was a unique method to involve partnership and involvement from the community, justifying the new-found motto of the SVP — Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM).

A total of Rs. 63 lakh was raised from the Archdiocese of Mumbai by enlisting the help of Christian parishioners in seeking “partners in the common cause”. Over 30,000 flyers were distributed through the church to solicit monetary support. A few thousand enthusiastic participants contributed amounts ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 5,000, to become “partners” in this unique scheme that reaped rich dividends.

Now, the society aims even higher to build a 100–bed full–fledged Aids Hospice for men, women and children, suffering from the dreaded disease. The Rs. 4 crore project is ambitious but when completed it will fill a crucial and gaping void.

Yet another instance of a Christian institution, stepping in critical areas where neither government institutions nor private enterprise show any desire to tread.

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‘We believe that every one is a child of God’

Victory over Poverty