Sister Act: During Covid-19, Mother Teresa Sisters Join Ranchi Diocese in Feeding Poor

Ranchi: Mother Teresa Sisters once again have come forward selflessly to serve the poorest of the poor. This time in collaboration with the Ranchi District Administration, a community kitchen for 600 persons which will run for about a month from now was inaugurated and blessed by Archbishop Felix Toppo SJ on April 7, 2020.

COVID 19 has struck at the very roots of our social system. It has infected over a million and a half persons, taken away the lives of nearly Seventy five thousand. COVID 19 has just began spreading in Jharkhand. While it has locked people down in their homes, who can watch television and play games with each other, numerous people have been left on the streets and the poor and vulnerable are now suffering the most as hunger creeps on to their door and rations begin running out. Stranded migrants also fear the disease but also fear being caught by the police and taken for testing.

In this regard the Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Shri Rai Mahimapat Ray and the district Administration is doing a marvellous job. With advance planning, he has set up a plan to aid those who are most in need. The Deputy Commissioner and his team has reached out to various people for help in creating shelters, in running distress helplines, creating and running community kitchens, distributing rations etc. When he reached out to the Catholic Church in Ranchi, all the different Religious Organisations of the Church in Ranchi collectively under the leadership of Archbishop Felix Toppo and Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas have responded with immediate action. 14 shelters have already been prepared in different schools run by the Catholic Church on the borders of Ranchi district for stranded migrants and two have already begun receiving guests.

As usual the Mother Teresa have come forward into what they have always been doing: helping the poorest of the poor. The Mother Teresa Sisters in collaboration with the District Administration has set up kitchen to provide daily meals for one month for 600 people in the Indranagar colony in Jaganathpur in Ranchi. The Colony is inhabited by families affected by leprosy and has alays remained on the margins of society. The venture is a model for cooperation.

The Mother Teresa Sisters in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Ranchi is responding to the District Administration which will supply the Rice and Dal (pulses). Mr. Punit Poddar who has also collaborated earlier with the Archdiocese by supplying 2 tonnes of Rice and 1 ton of Dal for the poor which is being distributed to the poor in distress, has provided the cooking oil, onions and garlic, and the Mother Teresa Sisters along with the Archdiocese of Ranchi will acquire the vegetables, potatoes, masalas, other material and the firewood for the meals. With the help of the Mukhiya of the village Mr. Murli Goswami, the villagers themselves will cook under the guidance of the Mother Teresa Sisters and serve the meals.

The mother Teresa sisters are once again in action with their mercy and charity