By Ramana Annamraju MedBricks
Before MotherTherea is Mother Teresa, she took intensive medical training. She spent six months in 1948 with the American Medical Missionary Sisters hospital, in the city of Patna, India. She may not be qualified as a nurse. But six months of training in the serious medical setting is substantial, compared to only three years of training for medical doctors in those days. Mother Teresa took leprosy patients to her home while the whole world outcasted them with utmost stigma.
In the Science versus Stigma war, science has shown the way, how to beat stigma, Here is the sad story of stigma and the triumph of science.
These destitute are fellow Indians forced to live in remote colonies, far away from their homes. . There is no electricity and no running water. Their own children won't come and see them. They have not seen their sisters and brothers in decades. Probably they die lonely without their loved ones. Society shunned them. The country doesn’t even acknowledge its existence. People treat them with unbelievable cruelty. They endure unrelenting physical and emotional pain. Their piercing eyes can tell you the stories of human cruelty. Humanity showed no empathy and no compassion. The indifference shown towards these humans is beyond guilty. I have to admit with shame that I was no exception. The young Rastafarian-looking kid in the picture, a rare visitor to this destitute colony, is award-winning BBC news presenter Seyi Rhodes. The Indian citizens sitting down are afflicted with a disease called “Leprosy”.Seyi Rhodes is making a documentary of this isolated leper colony in India for BBC Television in 2010.Leprosy is a bacterial infection that produces skin sores, nerve damage, and muscle weakness. if not treated the disease slowly progresses into a notorious disfigured look described in the bible, loss of fingers, and deformed facial structures. It is not any more infectious or more contagious disease than any other infection, but the stigma associated with it is, unparallel to any disease in history. It is believed that around 95% of people are naturally immune to this disease. . The people who are at risk are very small percentages attributed to a defect in the cell that causes susceptibility to leprosy. The region of DNA responsible for this is also involved in Parkinson's disease, giving rise to current speculation that the two disorders may be linked.
Leprosy is an easily treatable disease with Multi-Drug Therapy. Leprosy is in the last leg on this planet. Thanks to Pharma company Novartis, an unsung hero in the battle against this disease providing free medicines to more than 100 million. A few decades ago Leprosy patients in India like many parts of the world suffered the worst conditions. The afflicted were quarantined and forcibly removed from their homes to the remote locations called leprosariums. Men were sterilized, while pregnant women were forced to have abortions. Using the draconian laws, afflicted children were forcibly removed from their parents and sent to leper colonies. India, Japan, Korea, Hawaii is too few to the name on the worst offenders list.
In 2010, a 16-year-old girl, Pooja, who comes from Baripur village in Uttar Pradesh, India tells a heart-wrenching story through tears, how her neighbors drove her out of the village after the initial diagnosis.
In a class-action lawsuit filed by one of the Japanese leprosy victims,Mamoru Kunimoto said "For 60 years, I was not treated as a human".To add to the horror, South Korean Leprosy victims were sent off to an island. Now 86 years old Park Tae-yeon endured forced sterilizations. In a riveting testimony against the government, she cries “ We're so lonely, We've never had a family”.When I was growing up in rural India I was like everyone else showed no compassion. I ran away from them out of unknown fear when Lepers were begging for their last meal .,. That feeling of guilt still bothers me even today. But there was one great soul who defied this taboo. That is my late father. He was a teacher, doctor, and extraordinaire. With his limited knowledge of medicine available to him for those days, he was brave and compassionate and tried to help the best way he could!
Not just my father, countless fathers from Christian missionaries who took an arduous journey across the dangerous oceans, gave an uplifting hand, to those who needed human touch. No doubt, Christian missionaries are the only ones that stood in the front lines of taking care of the leprosy victims. .
On the way to Jerusalem Jesus cleansed a leper by going against the law of those days. True to his calling, one of them, Father Damian went from Belgium to Hawaiian islands in 1864 to care for lepers and eventually died by contracting the disease himself. India’s Mahatma Gandhi called Father Damien is his inspiration for his calling to care for untouchables. Dr. Che Guevara Argentinain Physician radicalized, in the deep jungles of Amazon, while taking care of leprosy patients, witnessing their suffering
Mother Theresa took lepers from the streets of Calcutta to her
home as a true servant of Jesus. In a Life magazine interview, "No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds," Mother Teresa announced. "Yet I willingly care for him for the love of God."
Covid-19 pushed compassion fatigue to the extreme for healthcare professionals.. To the surprise of the researchers, spirituality may not only serve as a protective factor in moderating compassion fatigue but also increase, compassion satisfaction among professional caregivers. That is called the "Mother Teresa Effect".
President Reagan says of Mother Teresa while presenting the highest civilian award, Medal of Freedom, “Most of us talk about kindness and compassion but mother Teresa the saint of the gutters live it”!*************
On a Personal Note
When we forget the people, who served humanity, and when we forget the people, who invented for others' benefit, we will lose our moral compass! Mother Teresa is a short woman, but in the service of humanity, she is taller than all of us!!!
Just Commerce is means to social consciousness, nothing more!
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