Richie John Pais
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Nov 30: A team of four volunteers from India are getting ready to leave for Sierra Leone in Africa to serve the Ebola affected community.
Fr Antony Kunnel, director of Snehasadan, a home for the HIV positive children in Mangaluru and Brother Madhu Babu, director of Snehakiran in Hyderabad will leave for Makeni in Sierra Leone on December 8. Fr Siby Kaitharan, counsellor with Snehakiran and Fr Teji Thomas, medical nurse with Snehasadan will leave in February 2015.
The team will reopen the Holy Spirit Hospital in Makeni which was shut down due to absence of volunteers after a nurse died six months back.
The four-member team will undergo a week-long training in hospital management and infectious disease control and prevention in Rome before heading to Sierra Leone.
All the four are the members of Camillians which is a Catholic organization involved in healthcare for the past 450 years. The Order of the Ministers of the Sick, known popularly now as Camillians was founded by St Camililus De Lellis. The main mission of the Camillians is comprehensive healthcare of people especially that of the poor. In India, the organization is managed by Sneha Charitable Trust.
The Camillian task force already has the presence in Sierra Leone with two persons from Ireland and Philippines. The team is aware of the substantial risk involved in the mission but they are trained in the mission as it is their passion. It should be remembered that in addition to various missions in India, the Camillians were also involved in Kashmir and Uttarakhand missions.
Fr Antony Kunnel, who has been at Snehasadan, Mangalore for the past 5 years, speaking exclusively to daijiworld said, " We always respond to emergencies. That is our mission. But in this case, we had to wait for long to get our visas. In fact it has taken more than one and half month and we are yet to receive our visas. I am hopeful that the first batch will fly as per schedule."
"I could not go to Kashmir as I was hoping my Sierra Leone Visa would come soon. I will remain in Sierra Leone for at least two months. Then the duration will depend on the requirement. Our first priority is to reopen the closed hospital.This is my first trip to Africa and I have already taken yellow fever vaccination which is mandatory for the travelers to Africa," Fr Antony added.
Fr Antony aged 41 is originally from Kerala but was born and brought up in Sagara of Shimoga district. "I was very disturbed by the fact that nobody was ready to go to the Ebola affected countries as volunteers. God has given us this opportunity to serve the affected people.We are going there happily," Fr Antony says with happiness and missionary zeal.