Mangalore: White Doves to Usher in Christmas Season with Mobile Shows

Media Release

Mangalore, Nov 23: As every year during the Christmas season, the White Doves will pool in their talents and take to the streets conveying the message of Jesus, his love and hope, through their street shows known as the ‘2011-Year-Old Fact in a Mobile Act’.

The one-hour shows encompassing songs and acts by the White Doves volunteers and choir will be on December 9, 10 and 11.

The show will be held at various locations in the region, over 125 artists will be performing on five mobile stages. A fleet of 10 vehicles which includes trailer trucks  are used as stages with full light and sound effects. The theme for this year is “I came to seek and save the lost”. After delivering the message through the play in song and act the live crib with carols and dances of angels, Polka dancers and line dancers and dances by the sleigh riders will entertain the people. This unique show is free for all.

About White Doves

Inspired by the words and work of Mother Teresa, the White Doves, an NGO registered as a trust, has been involved in picking up the poor, mentally sick, abandoned  and homeless from the streets regardless of their caste, creed or religious affiliations.

At White Doves Homes they are cleaned, bathed and given a thorough medical examination. The sick are treated and they begin to live as part of White Doves family, loved and cared for at the home. It has been a constant endeavour for the past 17 years to integrate these children of God into the mainstream of Society.

Presently the White Doves homes house over 85 inmates including children and elderly people.  The White Doves take at the Home to the streets to feed the hungry, around 40 food packets are taken to the streets on daily basis. The lame, blind, dumb, deaf, and handicapped huddle together near the Mangalore Railway station for their only meal of the day given by the White Doves.

Most of the inmates being mentally unsound have lost their way and are away from home, some are from as far as Lucknow, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Novodeep, and even Nepal.  White Doves team has been trying to track down their families and restore them to their homes. And have successfully sent over 45 safely back home through the help of volunteers.

Last Christmas Jairam aged around 30 was restored to his home and family after staying over a year and half at White Doves.  Jairam was found mentally unsound and in rags near the Signal at Hampankatta. He couldn’t recall where he came from and who he really was. A year later after being on medication during the Christmas season he could recall his brothers name, his hometown Magady  and that he was married and has two children. White Doves did not waste any time to contact the police and get in touch with Jairam’s brother who was surprised to know that Jairam was alive and in Mangalore at White Doves as for three years they has believed he was dead. After performing all the required rituals they were told Jairam was dead and his wife and children were sent back to her parents’ home.

It was really an ecstatic moment, when Jairam’s children aged around 5 and 8 years were excited to know after all they have a father is alive and his 5-year-old daughter was heard shouting on the phone line in Kannada asking how he was and where he was and what he had eaten for breakfast.

The venues are as follows:

- Gandhi Maidan Brahmavar at 6.00 pm and Nehru Maidan Kundapur at 8.30 pm on December 9.
- Kendra Maidan, Suratkal at 6.00 pm and Fr Muller’s grounds, Kankanady at 8.30 pm on December 10.
- Nehru Maiden, Mangalore at 6.00 pm and at Padua High School grounds at 8.30 pm on December 11.