By Verghese V Joseph –
In the ongoing battle to mitigate the hardships faced by migrants and poor due to the COVID-19 lockdown, it is indeed heartening to see Christian churches join forces with the governments of different North-East States of India by offering their facilities for quarantine purposes.
Silently, the Church has been at the forefront of relief work in this global crisis. In a noble gesture, a great number of Christian institutions in the North East India have done extremely well in reaching out to the affected people.
Christian institutions in the State of Mizoram have agreed to open up their premises for quarantine facilities as per the request of the government. These facilities belong to Presbyterian Church, Baptist Church of Mizoram, Salvation Army and the Catholic Church. In some of these centres, food, logistics including free WI-FI are being provided. These institutions form critical cogs as vital service centres, as people from different states return from various parts of India.
Taking the lead, Tura diocesan pastoral centre, Walbakgre in the State of Meghalaya with all the facilities has been handed over as a quarantine facility and corona care centre. This 200-bed centre, which was newly built and was inaugurated on March 16 last year, takes care of quarantine needs. Meghalaya government is providing the manpower, food and other logistics. Catholic diocese of Tura under the leadership Bishop Andrew Marak was one of the first Christian leader to offer this major facility for the people.
The Churches in Nagaland have already agreed to coordinate the works as quarantine facilities will be needed more than ever.
One of the central role played by Christians and institutions was to provide instruction to the people to follow the guidelines from the directives of public health officials and the respective government departments. This was made possible through social media platforms and live-in church programmes. The containment success during the past phases shows that while the government machinery has been doing excellent work in the NE-India region, the Christian networks emphasised strict adherence to norms adopted by the government.
The church in Arunachal Pradesh is no different. The two dioceses in Arunachal Pradesh, Itanagar and Miao, have offered all their educational institutions to the government to be converted into quarantine facilities centre to accommodate people moving to the state from different parts of the country.
According to Fr Felix Antony, PRO of Miao Diocese of Arunachal Pradesh, “As of now, there are 70 people are accommodated in these facility centre for 14-day quarantine. Besides the social service wing of the two dioceses have been distributing relief materials like rice, pulse, oil and salt to more than 1,000 families around the state.”
“The church also has helped the sick with ambulances to get to hospital during the lockdown and also helped the migrants with vehicle to reach their homes. These are apart from the spiritual care we have extended to the people during this distressing times,” he added.
The Salesian Sisters of Guwahati province have provided food and hygiene kits to more than 7000 families.
On March 30, Archbishop John Moolachira, the Archbishop of Guwahati, the president of the North-East India Catholic Bishops’ Council and the chairman of Assam Christian Forum made an appeal to all the Catholic institutions to rise to the occasion. In his pastoral letter dated March 30, he wrote, “If there are migrants, people without food, basic needs, etc, within your parish or in your locality, make sure that you reach out to them with food and other basic amnesties, encourage your parishners, friends to help them. We can make available our schools, accommodate and feed the migrants who cannot reach their homes due to the shutdown.”
Similar instructions and offers were relayed to the respective churches of different Christian leaders in the region and thus adding strength to the government administration. The Archdiocese of Guwahati has already agreed to give eight of its institutions for quarantine facilities. The places are given to the government authorities. These eight centres are Mathia, Nowgong, Kari. Kathiatholi, Silchang, Morigaon, Hojai and Jagiroad.
Assam Christian Forum (ACF), an ecumenical association of churches in the State of has been at the forefront of Covid-19 related relief efforts. The work of ACF has been to coordinate different Christian organisations based in Guwahati, the commercial transit point of North-East India.
One of the senior-most Christian leaders of North East India, A K Goldsmith, who is also general secretary of Assam Christian Forum, a man with 31 years of experience in disaster management has been leading this unified ecumenical effort of Christians and Christian organisation. “It is our Christian duty to take responsibility for those we live with,” he added.