Daily Times

The Missionaries of Charity Mother Teresa Home for the Disabled and Destitute was blessed and inaugurated in the presence of Mother Teresa herself. Since then they have taken it upon themselves to take care of the abandoned, the neglected, the disabled, the poor and the homeless

Mother Teresa is a household name. Her kindness and humanity speaks volumes to people of all races, religions, countries and socioeconomic backgrounds. Even in Pakistan, her name is often mentioned with that of Abdul Sattar Edhi, an equally great humanitarian who dedicated his life to help others. Edhi helped all who needed his help, and in his lifetime never once turned away a person in need. He paid no regard to their religion, caste, class or race. Sadly, only a few truly understood his mission. His message was forgotten and “Help Everyone and Anyone” was reduced to an impractical afterthought. We have let our prejudices take over and let them dictate who is deserving of our help.

But there are still some of us who do care. Some who set aside their prejudices and do not let their own bias dictate who is worthy of help. I speak of a home, built specifically for the neglected, the poor, the abused, the deformed, the mentally challenged and the physically disabled. Such a place seems almost utopian. My first impression of this was, how could I not have known of this, and that too in my own city? Then, I found out something even more amazing. This Home was run by Christian nuns. In an Islamic Republic, where Christians are sadly treated as second class citizens.

Edhi helped all who needed his help, and in his lifetime, never turned away a person in need. He paid no regard to their religion, caste, class or race. Sadly, only a few truly understood his mission

The Missionaries of Charity Mother Teresa Home for the Disabled and Destitute is located on Gurumangat Road in Gulberg II, Lahore. It was blessed and inaugurated in 1991 in the presence of Mother Teresa herself. Since then they have taken it upon themselves to take care of the abandoned, the neglected, the disabled, the mentally challenged, the poor and the homeless. They only take in the truly destitute and take care of them with love, patience and affection.

I have myself had the opportunity to visit the home. It is open to all to come visit and interact with the children, bring foodstuffs, clothing, toys, books and whatever else they feel the children could require. Upon asking to meet the Sister-in-Charge, a Sister came to the gate to escort us inside. The Home had, as we saw, utilised its limited funds properly, without any mismanagement or foolishness. They had a nice, quaint little playground for the children with a few swings, and a small play area where the children could run around and play.

We requested to meet the children to deliver to them packets of sweets and chocolates we had brought from home, and the Sisters happily obliged. We met three people outside, who shook our hands and introduced themselves. I remember a friendly little girl named Beenish. She complimented my friend’s hair and asked our names, remembering mine by Shan and hers by Umbrella. Another woman, Sumeira comes to mind. She could not speak properly because of her cognitive disabilities but she tried so very hard to remember our names and introduce herself to us. It was heartbreaking to see her trying to say her name but she could not, despite how hard she tried; it was the Sister who had to introduce her to us. We were taken up to their dormitories, where we saw children playing with a few decrepit, broken toys and reading nursery level books, far below their intellectual age bracket. What sincerely touched my heart was how purely and genuinely happy they were whilst engaging themselves in activities that seemed so banal and so unattractive to us born with everything readily delivered to us at our doorsteps. Whatever life had thrown at them, they had taken it in stride. I still remember two children, one of whom had Down’s Syndrome (Trisomy 21) and the other was found abandoned by the roadside and one half of her face had been mauled by an animal. My heart was both filled with joy and breaking at the same time as I saw these two girls playing with cheerful smiles on their face and clamouring around us for toffees and goodies.

I felt proud and ashamed, proud that I had come here and was helping in bringing a smile to their faces, and ashamed that I had not done more and that I had not done that sooner

I felt proud and ashamed, proud that I had come here and was helping in bringing a smile to their faces, and ashamed that I had not done more and that I had not done so sooner. Another girl, Nadia was playing with her little sister, Nadia could speak but her little sister could not. She introduced herself to us and proudly said that her sister was studying in the Rising Sun Foundation School, which nearly brought me to tears. We gave the sisters Rs 10,000, a small amount considering a meal eating out with family can surmount to that much, but even for that they seemed genuinely grateful and thanked us sincerely and repeatedly. We were unfortunately unable to meet the Sister-in-Charge but the other Sisters were most accommodating and answered all of the various questions we had with patience. The Sisters then presented us with a small wallet-size picture of Mother Teresa with the following quote:

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”

A fact which may point to their testament and willpower, but also to our prejudice and inability to acknowledge other facets of society in Pakistan, is such that

The Missionaries of Charity Mother Teresa Home does not campaign for funds or donations. Whatever they get from donations is what people give to them of their own volition. One of the reasons is their determination and effort, and this is a great measure by which we can gauge their sincerity, honesty and dedication to their mission to care for all. One of the reasons, unfortunately, is the fear of religious persecution and how the uninformed and insecure of us would handle a Christian mission asking for funds to raise Muslim children. Children for whom we ourselves did not care for.

Children for who we can’t even spare loose change when they come up to us at traffic signals at scorching roads polluted with exhaust fumes and mercilessly bombarded with the heat of the unrelenting summer sun, while we sit comfortably in our air conditioned cars.

We, as a society, have become incapable humanity. But we do laud and commend those who show some shred of basic human decency. At the rare moments of our life when we do show generosity and benevolence, we expect to be rewarded, praised and acknowledged for that “seventy times over”. The Missionaries of Charity Mother Teresa Home requires no gratification, no recognition and no praise. All that concerns them is their Mission: Everyone is born equal and it is the duty of those who have been blessed with more by virtue of their birth or by virtue of the circumstances that befell them, to help those who were not.

The writer has done his A-Levels from Aitchison College and wants to pursue a career in medical science. He is based in Lahore

Published in Daily Times, September 26^th 2017.