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December 15, 2008
Favourite Activist(s): Volunteers at the Missionaries of Charity homes in Calcutta, India.
After making my initial call for naming your favourite activist(s), I've decided to publish the first round of results. I'll try to publish one a day. Again these are the names of people/organizations that inspire you.
Our first activist was suggested by my friend, Jeremy, a Canadian journalist who worked extensively in India:
Volunteers at the Missionaries of Charity homes in Calcutta, India.
Area(s) of activism:
Volunteering at homes such as the one for disabled children and the home for the dying destitute.
What inspires you about this person or group?
Many of these people work at regular jobs in Europe and North America and save up all year the way some people in Canada save for a sun holiday. But instead of going to the beach to relax, overeat and drink, these volunteers use their savings to fly to India, stay in cheap guest houses/hotels and help some of the world's poorest people. Most of the Westerners have no medical or caregiving experience, but they help out in ways that would be hard for most of us to imagine, including helping to teach physically challenged children, cleaning opens wound and holding someone’s hand as they die. One young French woman at the Home for the Dying Destitute described cleaning maggots off of an open wound on an elderly woman’s head. Many of the volunteers I met return year after year to help out. All of them say they get more back out of volunteering than they give, but as someone who has never given so much of myself to a stranger, I can’t really understand what they mean. All I could do was be amazed by them.
Connect to Missionaries of Charity Brothers
Posted by Jason at December 15, 2008 3:19 PM