Stichting Veldwerk at Nepal

Secretariaat: Stichting Veldwerk Postbus 163 1850 AD Heiloo The Netherlands

Tel:+31 (0)72-5339585 veldwerk@wlink.com.np IBAN nr. NL51ABNA0543703266 Attn. Stichting Veldwerk, p/a Egmond Binnen Bank: ABN-Amro 543703266

The Mother Theresa Home, Kathmandu

The Mother Theresa Home, Kathmandu As you might know I have been working for a long time in the early mornings in the homes of Mother Theresa together with the volunteers from Stichting Veldwerk (Foundation Fieldwork). The volunteers have some good memories from working there, but they also experienced the rough side of working from the staff and the religious nuns. These Sisters of Charity are more concerned with the cleaning and the "hygiene" of the home than the care for the people that live there. The people that run and work at the home have the attitude that the handicapped and demented should be glad that they aren't living on the street, and that any way they are treated is fine. Our presence in the homes helped the nuns in their work and we tried to teach them a bit more about personal hygiene.

The same dirty cloth was used to wash the sick, the diseased and the healthy children causing health problems which could have been avoided through hygienic practices. They then gave medicine which might not have been necessary had all the germs not been passed from one person to the other. We tried to explain the effect of this and came up with an alternative. The children and the elderly thought was great that we came, as there was more personal attention and we would help them with eating there meal in a more humane way. The staff and Sisters of Charity didn't have time so they would stuff the food in the patients' mouths in a big rush. One day a handicapped lady didn't feel very well and during dinner she vomited. Instead of helping her they hit her because she had wasted food and then they forced her to eat anyway.

The first rule when you enter the children's' home of Mother Theresa is that you can't lift the children up and give them attention. This, said the head sister, is because the children will ask for attention the whole day. Even when the volunteers aren't there the nuns don't have time for that, because they also have to pray and clean. And, with cleaning I mean cleaning and cleaning again. The whole house is shining and smells of Lysol and Dettol but when a child goes to the toilet they don't even clean them properly and the underwear is merely pulled up. When it's time for their weekly bath they have to keep their underwear on. The house, however, remains clean as they scrub it 3 times a day. The cupboards in the home are filled with brand new toys, shining but behind closed doors. At 10 am a box with old and broken toys will be brought into the room. That's what they can play with.

In the Ashram for the demented elderly, near the burning gaths of Pashupatinath, the beloved Sisters of Charity hit their patients. Their excuse is that the elderly deliberately provoke the sisters stating that the sisters get a lot of money for the job. The sisters say they will teach them by hitting them. We are talking about the demented elderly here.

In the home for the mentally handicapped a couple of sweet people who have suffered strokes live there. They are still mentally alert and shouldn't be there at all. Unfortunately there is no choice, as they are treated like they are mentally ill. A little boy, Shanty, is spastic and can't speak. If one gives him a little time there is a way of communicating with him, and he can explain what he wants and needs. He can't walk on his own but with a bit of help he can manage and one can see he actually enjoys it. If Shanty needs to go to the toilet the care taker drag him through the hallway like a potato sack over the hard concrete floor, up the stairs to the toilet, where they dump him.

One hour later, his head peaks around the corner. He would like to leave now. The care taker comes to pull up his pants without cleaning him and drags him back to the garden. His knees are bleeding. On the wall was written 'love until it hurts'. It hurts for sure, but love?

Perplexed, after seeing this happening, I tell those care taker, 'If I ever see you doing that again, I will do the same thing to you and you can tell me how it feels'. Her answer is to smile.

A couple of our volunteers had a bit of trouble understanding the disrespectful way the Sisters of Charity where treating the occupants, especially the fact that after cleaning the house, they would do it again and again, but still devote no time to the patients.

I couldn't discuss this matter with the head sister of the Sisters of Charity in Chabil, Kathmandu. 'It's not true', she said. Even after I told her that I had seen it with my own eyes she refused to believe me. Nobody had ever criticizes us, and now you come here to tell me those things? She told me to take all of the volunteers, and never come back. Behind her on the wall the big letters saying again 'love until it hurts'. A well meant slogan from Mother Theresa in Calcutta, but I'm not sure if her message ever reached Nepal.

Since that last meeting the head sister put all the incontinent and handicapped on a special toilet chair, their pants down from the moment they rise out of bed from 8 am till noon. As such they also have to eat their meal on the lavatory. They stuff the food in their mouths. Around the patients millions of flies sit on their plates, eyes, and mouths but also on the toilet chairs. After their meal they go back to bed for their nap. Their buttocks are purple and bruised from sitting the whole morning in these uncomfortable chairs.

It is sad that we have to stop our contribution to the Mother Theresa home, but no choice in this matter anymore.

See also Nepali Children homes in Kathmandu, big business