Houses for homeless in Year of Mercy
At least half of the beneficiaries are Hindus in Ujjain Diocese of some 5,000 Catholics.
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| A couple at the entrance of their newly built house by the Diocese of Ujjain in central India as part of its observance of the Year of Mercy. (ucanews.com photo) |
"This is the first monsoon season we can sleep without worries of the shelter leaking," said 51-year-old Verma, who credits the Catholic Church for the changes in the Ujjain district, India.
For decades the family lived in "a small hut made of bamboo poles and covered with tarpaulin" at Pachore, on the outskirts of Ujjain town. It flooded during the July-September monsoon season. "We had to remain awake most nights during heavy rains," Verma told ucanews.com.
That was until February when the Ujjain Diocese built a 300 square foot, one-bedroom house with kitchen and living room.
Verma is among 25 families who received a new house as part of the diocese's observance of the Year of Mercy.
The Year of Mercy runs from December 2015 to November 2016. Pope Francis invited Catholics from across the world to engage in spiritual and corporal works of mercy, including feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.
India has 1.77 million homeless people. According to a 2011 government census, the majority live in cities or on the peripheries of cities.
Homeless people like Verma are mostly daily-wage earners and have a hand-to-mouth existence.
"We could not even imagine building a house in our life-time as we were unable to save a single penny," said Bai, Verma's wife.
Ten years ago they used all their savings to purchase a 500 square foot plot of land for 10,000 rupees (US$220). "But we could not build a house on it as I did not have a single penny to spare," Verma said.
"It was a great moment to shift into the new house," said Kanti, Verma's daughter. Kanti is currently studying engineering and plans to follow in her sister's footsteps and graduate. She is grateful her parents put their education first before buying a house.
Bishop Sebastian Vadakkel of Ujjain said the diocese had plans to build houses for the homeless but when the Year of Mercy was announced, "we thought there is no better occasion than this."
At least half of the beneficiaries are Hindus in a diocese of some 5,000 Catholics, amongst a population of 6 million Hindus.
"God's love transcends barriers like caste, creed, religion and linguistic differences, hence we wanted to share this in its totality during the Year of Mercy," Bishop Vadkkel told ucanews.com.
Among the beneficiaries were skeptical people like 42-year-old Binda Devi. "When we got the offer we could not believe anyone would give it to us for free," Devi said.
Along with her husband Madanlal Chouhan and their three children, Devi lived on two acres of land in Khadi village. As the land had no water and was barren, they lived a "miserable" life in a hut with the meager earnings her husband made as a farm hand.
But their suspicion ended when they found church people "genuine and serious. We are indebted to them," she said.
Father Joseph Venattumattam, coordinator of the project, said they chose to help homeless families with land but too poor to build a house.
He explained that buying land could be difficult for the church as pro-Hindu groups might create hurdles and delay the project. "We wanted the project to be completed during the Year of Mercy," he said.
The initial plan was to build houses for the golden jubilee of the diocese in 2019. "That plan has not been abandoned. We are still working on it," said Father Joseph Venattumattam.
Rames Parmar, a Catholic beneficiary of the project, said the new house was the "best Year of Mercy gift" for his family. "The year of mercy has become more real and tangible now," he said.
His wife Pushpa Parmar agrees. "We never expected the papal announcement to have such an effect on our family. We never thought God would be so merciful," she said.
Source: UCAN
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