Slain missionary’s widow receives Mother Teresa award

She was honoured for her work among people with leprosy.

Mumbai:  Gladys Staines, whose husband and children were burned alive by Hindu nationalists in Odisha, has been given the Mother Teresa award for her charity work.

Staines opted to stay in India with their 13-year-old daughter Esther and continues to work among people with leprosy. She publicly forgave the attackers.

Australian Graham Staines and his two young sons died in 1999 when their car was set on fire by a mob.

Gladys was honored with the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice by the Harmony Foundation, a Mumbai-based charity that grants the only award endorsed by the famous nun's Missionaries of Charity.

"I thank God for his help in enabling me to carry out the work in caring for people with leprosy, even after my husband was killed," Staines said after being named the year's winner.

The citation reads: "Awarded for helping in the eradication of leprosy and helping remove the stigma from the minds of people and uplifting the cured leprosy patients to join the mainstream of society from where they were declared as outcaste."

Gladys Staines returned to Australia in 2004 but continued her work with the Evangelical Missionary Society. She was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri medal for Social Service by the Indian government the following year and used the money from the award to upgrade a home for people with leprosy to a hospital.

Source: Christian today