Mary McDaid describes her experience volunteering with children in India
Mary McDaid
“A smile is something if you give it away, it comes right back to you,” is a line from a little song we often sang with the children at the Flame of Hope home in Siliguri, India during my recent visit there. And it rings so true for the 32 children who live in the home run by Sr Ann Francesca, a Polish nun who has dedicated her life to the care of disabled children. The minute I got out of the car it was the children’s wide, beaming and joyful smiles that struck me. I didn’t see their disabilities; I didn’t see their poor quality, ill-fitting clothes; I didn’t see their lack of material possessions. No, I saw joy, pure joy.
My introduction to the Flame of Hope was given to me by my good friend Fr Eamonn Conway after he returned from a visit in January 2015. As he showed me the photographs of the children at work and play and told me their often harrowing life stories, his passion for the whole project was palpable. Within a very short period of time I was smitten too. “I’d love to go there to help them sometime,” I told him.
Little did I think that a year later, it would become a reality. I am finding it almost impossible to put words on how I felt while there and since my return. Unsettled is certainly how I would describe myself at the moment. I am unsettled because I am disturbed by the materialistic world that I allow myself to be part of. I am unsettled by the knowledge that so many live in abject poverty while a few of us live in luxury and often without appreciation for what we have. I am unsettled that we as a global people are doing very little to right these wrongs.
Cry of the poor
So often during my stay, Pope Francis’ words came to me. Words that he has spoken in Laudato Si’, that we must “hear the cry of the poor”.
The poor and marginalised of the world are so close to the Holy Father’s heart. We constantly see him reaching out to those that others may abandon or forget. The children at the Flame of Hope have almost all come from situations where they have been abandoned and forgotten.
Sr Ann Francesa has reached out to them with a heart of gold. Beginning with nothing “but a spoon and a glass she took from the aeroplane”, she has provided for them a loving home where they are well fed and well dressed and loved as if they were her own. She has provided, not just the children in the home, but also many extremely poor children from the surrounding villages, with an education which will give them more opportunities in life than they could ever have dreamed possible.
However, for me it is the love that she gives and fosters among the children themselves which is the greatest gift she has given them. All of the children there have a disability either physical or mental, yet none of them are hindered by their disability. They do not allow it to get in the way of their enjoyment of life or their participation in life.
Akash, a little boy of 12 with a contorted spine and only one – short – arm, somehow managed to carry my case downstairs on my departure. He made me a beautiful bead bracelet, stringing the tiny beads onto thread with his left foot! Pavitra, a beautiful 15-year-old girl, born with her two feet conjoined and webbed hands, danced a traditional Indian dance at the concert they put on for us.
She also danced a four-hand reel at our Irish night and she played the guitar at Mass every morning. Somehow, Sr Ann Francesa found the money and the expertise for the necessary surgeries to make this possible.
Little Vikas, born without eyes, walked around the compound following the sounds of the other children. He often stumbled and fell on his journey but he simply picked himself up and got on with it with a little laugh! He loves music: I gave him a little €2.99 battery operated piano with a grating, squeaky sound but he loved it. I might as well have given him a million euro! He wouldn’t leave it down, playing it night and day, stopping only to sing himself with his beautiful nightingale voice.
One of my most precious moments was when he led a sung version of the Lord’s Prayer at morning Mass.
Every one of the 32 children in the home have a similar story: horrific background of abandonment and disability but a wonderful, loving, happy disposition. They give away their smiles and your heart instantly melts.
To be invited to go to the Flame of Hope as a member of what Sr Ann Francesca called the ‘Irish Invasion’, was a beautiful gift to be given. To be allowed into the lives of these children was an absolute privilege and an experience I will never forget.
As a group of educational professionals I know that each of our own lives, both personal and professional, have been enriched by the work we did there. The children, the teachers and the novices were all equally appreciative of our input. We got back a hundred fold what we gave!
Project
My little fund raising project of ‘Helping Hands’ was a huge success. I was overwhelmed by the generosity of the staff and students in my school, of the people of my parish and of my family and friends, all of whom bought a ‘helping hand’ and made a donation to the cause.
The Flame of Hope receives absolutely no state or church funding. Sr Ann Francesca is totally dependent on voluntary donations so all can be assured that the money raised is being well spent. Some of it went towards employing a music teacher which will greatly enhance the lives of these very special children. But there is so much more to be done.
Their education provision is very basic. A classroom consists of desks, chairs and a blackboard. No displays of children’s work, no computers or projectors, no whiteboards and even more importantly, no textbooks. The teachers there are doing a fabulous job given that they are so under-resourced.
The other major element which is lacking in their education and lives is sport. They have space but no equipment. A small football pitch and a basketball court would make such a difference to the lives of these children.
I intend to make it my mission to continue to raise money to provide both educational and sporting resources for the children at Flame of Hope so that they can live up to Sr Ann Francesca’s motto, taken from scripture: “I came that they may have life and live it abundantly.”
Mary McDaid is a teacher in St Joseph’s College in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh.