Getting Mentally Balanced

The Salesian Cooperators visited Santhi Bhavan, Vattappara, a home for the mentally challenged.

The Salesian Cooperators with some inmates of Santhi Bhavan, Vattappara

Santhi Bhavan houses around 40 adults, mainly gents who were homeless and most mentally challenged. The inmates are accommodated in a very modestly built house with inadequate facilities. Don Bosco Veedu visited this centre last year during COVID when the centre ran short of finance, food and provisions. Hearing about the centre, during one of the Salesian co-operators meetings, they decided to visit Santhi Bhavan to spend time with the inmates and share a meal with them. October 2nd, Gandhi Jayanti day, was considered a perfect day.  

The members were moved by the people they met there. They spent some time with the inmates, spoke to them and decided to support them to tide over some urgent financial constraints they face. The Salesian Cooperators empathised with the inmates and remarked that we often do not understand people’s sad lives. Occasional visits to such centres can help us live a life of gratitude.

The Association of Salesian Cooperators (ASC) is the movement of the laity of the Salesian Family of Don Bosco and is the third order of the Salesian Order. It is also one of the three main branches of the Salesian Family, founded directly by Don Bosco in 1876.

The visit reminded me of a narrative about the visit of Abbe Pierre to Vellore Medical College I read in Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, a book by Dr Paul Brand and Philip Yancey. As a Catholic friar, Pierre was assigned to work among the beggars in Paris after World War II. He got the beggars organised, they worked together and shared what they had, and their condition improved. Soon, an organisation called Emmaus was started to perpetuate the mission with branches in other countries.

While visiting Vellore, he told Dr Paul that after years of this work in Paris, there were no beggars left in that French city. Pierre believed his organisation was about to face a severe crisis.

“I must find somebody for my beggars to help!” he declared and had begun searching in other places around the world. He feared the movement could turn inward if his people did not seek to help someone in need. They will become a powerful, prosperous organisation, and the whole spirituality will be lost. We need someone to serve. The Emmaus movement thus flourished as a serving part of Christ’s body.