Earlier this month it was a delight to be back in Goa, my first visit after being bestowed the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status.
I was so very pleased to attend the Golden Jubilee Reunion of our SSC batch at our school Bal Bharati Vidyamandir in my native Ribandar. Meeting up with my fellow students and dear teachers after 50 long years was heart-warming. A flashback of nostalgic memories.
However, on the other side it was so very distressing to learn that the Home for the Aged next to Don Bosco High School in Panaji run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, was going to be shut down this month end. This was a much needed shelter for the destitute and homeless. An immense solace to the poor, downtrodden and impoverished.
Seven years ago, I had requested the nuns there to house a woman from Ribandar whom they willingly accommodated, and it was a setback to be told that she now had to leave. It was too sudden and at a very short notice. Fortunately, I was able to relocate her to another charitable home in South Goa.
Let us hope that the authorities will do everything possible to restore this institution in Panaji so that the Missionaries of Charity can continue providing the laudable service in helping the underprivileged and needy. May the focus at all times be on Care, Concern and Comfort of the poorest of the poor. Through concrete measures there is need to usher the much-needed succour and solace to these unfortunate brothers and sisters who languish without a shelter.
Nelson Mandela had so very rightly said, “Freedom is meaningless if people cannot put food in their stomachs, if they can have no shelter, if illiteracy and disease continue to dog them”.
