By Verghese V Joseph –
When the first phase of COVID-19 lockdown hit Guwahati, neighbours from surrounding places came to Women Development Centre (WDC) and narrated the difficulties faced by the poor, daily labourers and domestic workers.
WDC is a social service wing of the Sisters of the Cross of Chavanod. Situated in Guwahati, WDC began with the inspiration and support of Archbishop Emeritus Thomas Menamparampil of the Archdiocese of Guwahati in the year 1999 to empower women leaders from the remote villages of North-East India.
During the last few days of COVID-19 lockdown, WDC has reached out to 4,870 families and 24,250 people. One of the first initiative of this group of nuns was to make masks and distribute them in the neighbourhood of Kharguli area of Guwahati. They did not have prior experience of making masks, but as the adage goes — necessity is the mother of invention — they rose to the challenge and manufactured masks that helped people to move about.
In the first wave of lockdown, together with the community leaders of the area, they supplied dry ration — rice 10kgs, dal 2 kgs and soyabeans 1 kg, potato 3 kgs, onion 2kgs, hand sanitizer, mustard oil 1 kg and Dettol soaps were handed over to 850 people in and around Joypur Kharghuli area of Guwahati. This act was augmented with specific reach out programmes to the widows in the neighbourhood — 80 of them with specific dry ration kits and masks.
Tea garden is one of major areas of concern during the lockdown. Many of them who are not permanent workers had no identity card and thus no ration. Realizing this great need the nuns supplied them with dry food in Siajuli tea garden for 550 daily wage earners with rice 5 kgs, dal 1 kg, mustard oil 1 kg, potato 3 kg, soyabeans ½ kg and soap and onion.
The Sisters in collaboration with others in Harmutty in N. Lakhimpur, Ambagaon in Tezpur Diocese, Mariani in Dibrugargh Diocese, Borkhola in the Archdiocese of Guwahati did much humanitarian work. They were able to distribute dry food to 650 widows and vulnerable people in the area. While it was difficult to get things done during the lockdown period, but in collaboration with government permission and protocol, they were able reach out to many affected people.
Persons with disability (PWD) is another group these Sisters reached out. Help was rendered to these 304 PWDs with Rs. 6,000 each from government Social Work Department. This was facilitated by Nimisius Islary, one of the close collaborators of these Sisters. Besides, the Sisters were also able to reach out to 50 most reserved PWD’s with rice, mustard oil, dal, Dettol, soap, etc.
In the district of Jorhat, the Sisters were able to reach out to 430 people under quarantine with dry food. In Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts of Assam, 1068 farmers were given dry food.
The house and premises of these Sisters were available with food and accommodation for eight construction workers and seven girl students who were stranded for several weeks. Sr. Betsy Devasia, the director of WDC says, “When I look back the days of this pandemic period, more people would have died due to hunger and anxiety than COVID 19 itself. I am humbled by God’s grace and enriched by people’s love and support, we reached out to 4,870 people. This was possible due to the support of our hard working and dedicated volunteers, community leaders, benefactors, collaborators specially the support of Sr. Annie our provincial and our Sisters”.
The purpose of this centre is to impart skills to women and motivate them to improve lives. From the inception, WDC has trained more than 100 women leaders from all over North-East India with the basic skills to form and run self-help groups. One of the key activity of the centre during the last 20 years of its existence is to train young girls who missed a formal education. They are given a chance to learn and earn their livelihood to lead a dignified life. “Most of our girls who were trained here are happily continuing to live decent family lives,” says Sr. Liza, the superior of WDC. We have trained 1,200 women through our vocational training centre.