Catholic nuns, who play a major role in the Church’s healthcare works in India, plan to meet the poor and weak at their doorsteps instead of waiting for them at hospitals and dispensaries. For this initiative, CHAI (Catholic Health Association of India) had conducted three-month training programs for women religious engaged in health care mission to help them review their charism and rediscover their relevance in the emerging context of India so that they can become “community health enablers.”
As reported by mattersindia.com, Father Abraham, a physician who heads the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), the largest association of Catholic health workers in the country, remarked that “Women religious congregations manage more than 90 percent of the Catholic healthcare facilities in India, especially in the rural areas. Repositioning of the Catholic health ministry will enable the sister-nurses to reach out to people at their doorsteps, instead of waiting for them come to her health center.”
At present, 45,943 women religious serve the poor in India through hospitals, dispensaries and other health centers, especially in remote villages, adds the priest, a member of Redemptorist order. The three-month training program was among part of attempts to ease their healthcare burden of the poor.
Source: www.mattersindia.com
