April 13^th marks a special day for 3 of the most populous religions in not only India but on Earth. For all three to fall on the same day is a rare occasion,  and for many this a symbol of unity. While separation and tensions arise in all countries and nations, such celebrations intertwining reminds us to find strength and alliance in diversity.  

Now to discuss a bit about each:

 Navratri translates into “nine nights” where the people of the Hindu religion focus on rejuvenation through following a strict diet, sleep, and meditation. Each of the nine days are dedicated towards Goddess Shakti’s nine embodiments.

April 13^th also happens to be the first day of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam. Ramadan lasts from the sighting of one crescent moon to the next, therefore it roughly lasts about 30 days. Ramadan is practiced as to attain taqwa, to make amends for ones sins and avoid drought. Along with this, it provides Muslims with a period of reflection, where Allah may guide them to peace and clarity, and allow them to be grateful. Muslims strictly fast for the entire time the sun is up, only breaking fast during night. Along with this many Muslims give Sadaqah, donations to charity for the cause of Allah.

Overall, there is a wave of much needed peace and acceptance this week as the focus shifts towards peace, humility, and self deliberation. 

Personal initiative is part of Spiritual Life. It is part of our freedom to chose how to act. When Charity reflects our love for God, and through that, we assist those in need, it is indisputable evidence of our love for God and, in turn, our love for others.

When giving is difficult, it is a more extraordinary act of your love for others. Mother Theresa is an excellent example of the freedom of action in Spiritual Life. 

Do not miss your opportunity to help those in need with your gift. 

Please Donate Now. 

God Bless,

Thank you

Dr. John Bickert,

President

CFTW 

Sr. Joy and Sr. Anusha use the money to buy 100 blankets to be distributed among the poor in the New Delhi Slums and sleeping bags to people who lived under the metro tracks. 

Another CFTW Success!!!

November 23, 2018

In the fall of 2018, I travelled to Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh in response to an invitation. Most of the Uttar Pradesh rural area is served by farmers work small farms to provide a living for their families.  On the visit to Lucknow, I visited St. Francis School for the Hearing Impaired.  It was a visit that has a lasting impact on me.  

Ninety students gathered excitedly and waited for more than an hour for me to complete treating patients brought to the school.

A large room contained more than 90 students gathered to present a dance and ask guest questions through a sister translating for me using sign language.

I was told by the sister who started the dance music that the music was solely for my purpose since they could not hear it at all.

Following the dance, a student raised his hand and asked, "Do they have deaf people in Canada?"

I then asked the assembled students, "Does anyone know what they want to be when they finish school."

A long silence was followed by a girl at the back of the room stood and announced, "I want to be a tailor."

"Great, I responded, do you sew now?"  

The sister, signing to the students at my side, quickly told me they are a very poor family.

The girl said, "No, I don't have a sewing machine."

I felt a little more than plain stupid. "Ok, you have one now.  We will buy you one."

It was a promise that I intended to keep; I offered money for a sewing machine to my host, who had arranged to take me to the school.  He refused to accept the money and insisted that he would buy the machine and arrange delivery to the girl.

I had no idea what was the girl's name.  I just trusted my promise would be kept.

Second Trip to Lucknow - November 2019

After travelling 23 hours from Calgary to India, I had 4 hours; to rest, shower, and be driven to the New Delhi train station.  I was once again heading to Lucknow, about a 6-hour train ride.

I asked about the girl who wanted to be a tailor, and they told me that she graduated, left the school, and the school administration had changed.  The potential tailor still had no sewing machine, and now I had no idea how to find her.  We visited a leper colony on this trip and did not return to St. Francis School for the H.I.

It bothered me that the young lady had not received her sewing machine.  In rural Uttar Pradesh, a poor family would have little chance of acquiring a sewing machine. The girl's aspirations of being a tailor would likely not be realized without sewing practice and instruction.

Who was that girl?  - November 2020

I wrote to Bishop John Mathias and asked about providing Christmas gifts to the now 130 students at the school and requested a list of the students and age levels.  I also asked if he could track down the girl to whom I promised a sewing machine.

He did!  The Bishop found the girl's name and contact details.  I now can keep the promise made to her two years ago.

Her name was Jyoti.  She lived in a rural village about a 4-hour drive north of Lucknow.

I ordered a sewing machine, and we had contacts from Jalandhar drive more than 20 hours overnight to visit her and show her how to operate the machine.

Jyoti has a 90% hearing loss.  She is one of 7 children who live in very rudimentary housing in the village.  She has two brothers and four sisters.  Two of her sisters suffer from learning challenges.  Girls in rural Uttar Pradesh have tremendous challenges without suffering any special needs.  Here is a family with three girls who have special challenges.

Jyoti and her family are happy to have a sewing machine. 

Plans are underway to find suitable training for Jyoti in the art of tailoring.

ANOTHER CFTW SUCCESS!  

Only made possible by donations from those who love. 

Illustration 1. Ben Hur searches for his relatives who live in leper colony caves from the 1959 epic movie Ben-Hur.

I recall sailing aboard HMCS Saskatchewan, a Canadian Destroyer Escort in 1962, on our way to the Panama Canal.  The Canal area is densely forested.  The commander informed us of a leper colony situated nearby in a forested area ashore.  I peered across the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of a resident of this Palo Seco leper colony. My imagination soared as we sailed past.  

“Who were these poor souls, and what about their families?” I thought.  I wonder if 2000 years ago, did parents with children and other family members who mysteriously developed unknown skin discoloration or blemishes get to see their loved ones after authorities sent them to a  colony? I  reflect now that my mouth must have been agape as I gazed toward the leprosarium.  It has since closed in 1979, not long after we sailed past.  This colony had developed a unique currency.  The coins used by the past residents are collected today.

Illustration 2. Flying over the Palo Seco leper colony in 1979.  The colony closed the same year.

Who hears or thinks of leprosy today?  Most are surprised when I tell them that I sailed past a colony in Panama.  Many in developed countries cannot imagine that this disease exists in 2020.  I assure you it does!

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 208,618 cases of leprosy worldwide in 159 countries.  The WHO states, “India is the top country by leprosy cases in the world.  As of 2018, leprosy cases in India were 120,334, that accounts for 57.69% of the world’s leprosy cases.  The top 5 countries (others are Brazil, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Democratic Republic of the Congo) account for 82.96% of total cases.” 

They see a prevalence of reported cases of the disease is very slowly decreasing,  although the decline is disappointing.

If one compares these numbers to measles for the same period, measles had a worldwide outbreak of 353 236.  Measles, in comparison to Hansen’s Disease (leprosy), is much more contagious.  Nine out of ten persons exposed will contact measles with an incubation period of ten to fourteen days. Leprosy is extremely hard to detect.  The Mycobacterium leprae bacillus is not easy to grow in culture, making confirmation of the disease tricky.  According to The WHO Fact Sheet, it states that the incubation period for leprosy averages five years, but “Symptoms may occur within one year but can also take as long as 20 years or even more to occur”.

It is unbelievable that a disease that can be cured by a two-year course of antibiotics is still affecting hundreds of thousands of people.

I have personally encountered 50 persons with leprosy in India; I met two ladies in Ludhiana, another I treated in New Delhi named Bilasi. In November 2019, I had the fortune to meet 47 living in a Leprosarium in Lucknow run by the Missionary Sisters of Charity.  

Bilasi came for treatment in New Delhi.  She patiently waited as others sought care.  She had neck and left shoulder pain.

Illustration 3. & 4. Bilasi waited patiently and is treated when her turn arrives.

Jesus cured ten lepers, and only one came back to thank him.  Bilasi, a beautiful woman with two fabulous children, came back to give thanks.  Her best friend also has leprosy.  Bilasi brought her friend’s daughter in addition to her children with her to meet me.  Sr. Lavina, a Holy Cross Sister in New Delhi on Sept 27, 2020.  She said, “I just now spoke to Bilasi.  Her wounds have increased”.  

On Oct 2, I received an email from His Excellency, Gerald John Mathias, Bishop of Lucknow, who said, “Thanks for your goodwill to help the needy…with renewed thanks…”  I can do nothing without your positive response of Love to those who suffer.  It is you to whom we must direct the Bishop’s words, “with renewed thanks.”  It belongs to you.  

Let us do what we can this Christmas to create a meaningful impact on all those who suffer.  We cannot all be at their side, but you can provide a meaningful personal gift to each of those who suffer. 

Illustration 5. Bilasi and her two children to my right.  Her best friend’s daughter to the far left.

The project is to raise funds for each of the leper victims to provide a gift to them for Christmas.  The plan is to give each one a warm comforter for their bed, hat, socks, a shawl for the cold winter months.  None of them have heating in their residence, and it gets below freezing level in Northern India in Winter.  We will purchase all items in India.  Give a $50 gift to a leper, please.

Donate Please! 

 Image taken from Ben-Hur  1959 Movie starring Charlton Heston, directed by William Wyler, and produced by Sam Zimbalist

 Areal of the Palo Seco Leprosarium.  From the Child, Jack Collection.  American University Library. Archives and Special Collections.

 Leprosy reported cases, Knoema, World Data Atlas Topics Health Communicable Diseases

 World Health Organization (WHO) Leprosy Fact Sheet 2020:  https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/leprosy.

 CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2020:  https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/measles/globalmeaslesoutbreaks.htm 

 World Health Organization (WHO) Leprosy Fact Sheet 2020:  https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/leprosy.

Health and Wellness

In healthcare, India spends just over 1% of its GDP on health expenditures—lower than its less financially advantaged neighbors like Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. India’s patient to doctor ratio is the lowest in the world at less than one per one thousand people, mostly due to a combined lack of trained physicians and an unwillingness to work outside of urban areas.

More than 57 million people fall into poverty each year as a result of unaffordable healthcare expenses, leading to a fatality rate of 2.4 million Indians per year who die of treatable conditions. Forty percent of healthcare locations that are available do not have an ambulance to take critically ill or injured patients to care facilities.

Children bear the brunt of the struggle in India, and the infant mortality rate is high. Children under five who succumb most often do so due to undernutrition, which claims the lives of half of those who do not make it to school age. One-third of the world’s total population of children whose growth has been stunted due to inadequate nutrition are located in India, accounting for nearly 47 million children. An addition 300,000 children die each year of diarrhea. 

Learning and Teaching

On the education front, India does not fare much better. Nearly 186 million women in India cannot read or write a sentence in any language. However, women are not the only ones who receive lower than average education. Roughly 313 million people in India are illiterate (with nearly 59 percent of them being women), and the adult literacy rate hovers just under 75%. The teacher to student ratio across the country averages approximately 24 to 1, and a third of Indian schools are even lower than this ratio. This prevents students from receiving the individualized attention that they need during their critical early learning years.

As they grow, students struggle to progress in their education. In urban areas, around 40% of students aged 15 or higher fail to secure the opportunity to pursue further education; in rural areas, this number jumps to nearly 70%. Only approximately 11% of Indians have a degree.

Conditions Worsen

Unfortunately for the millions of people who call India home, conditions only continue to deteriorate across many sectors that support quality of life. The cost of education has risen significantly over time, leading many families—especially in rural areas—to choose other options instead of further pursuit of education. A large majority of teachers (upwards of 90% depending on the area of the country) are unable to pass the Central Teacher Eligibility Test, which means that even students who can attend school are not receiving the education they deserve. However, many children opt out of school entirely or after only a few years, as families rely on children as sources of income.

This struggle with income arises from a number of contexts, but one of the most pressing remains unemployment. Unemployment numbers for adults continue to trend high as those children who were not able to finish school now lack the proper education for work as adults. The country’s infrastructure is also too weak in many areas to support consistently available jobs, especially in rural areas.

Healthcare continues to deteriorate nationwide, as hospital and care facilities are limited. Soap and water are not sufficiently available, and so many aspects of basic hygiene that can prevent illness and contamination are lacking. Additionally, public defecation remains a problem in both rural and urban areas; approximately 12% of the population defecate wherever it is convenient, and this number surges to 72% in rural areas. This human waste contaminates water sources and has led to the pollution of up to 75% of India’s surface water. 

What to Do

Understanding the situation in India is only the first step toward solving some of these problems. Those with academic skill can work to solve the country’s struggles at a textbook level, while the average person can contribute to charities working hard to address India’s many issues and bring a better quality of life to the millions of people who reside in this country.