By Robert Hiini
A school for handicapped children in Kuzhithurai, India, was on the brink of collapse seven years ago when Lumen Christi College stepped into the breach to help out. The college’s commitment to the Matrix Community and its work has been ongoing ever since. Twenty five packing cases the College sent before last Christmas have now arrived at the Mission in Attoor, India.
The College’s material and financial support helps the mission care for orphans, widows and children with disabilities.
Part of Lumen Christi’s contribution goes to support the “Matrix boys”: 26 young boys, many of them orphaned and in the care of Matrix priest Fr Maria Arputham at the community’s Matrix House.
Lumen Christi have agreed to a Matrix proposal to support the boys’ education past Year 12; something the Matrix Community is unable to do.
“It will be a wonderful thing and will increase the motivation of the Matrix boys,” Fr Maria Arputham told the College in a recent letter.
He is confident he can get one of the boys a place at a local polytechnic, studying civil engineering.
As there is a dearth of suitable students this year, Fr Arputham has asked the College if he can re-apply the funds, in the short term, to rebuilding a badly damaged kitchen at a local school. He said the government might stop providing meals at the site if the kitchen is not fixed.
Fr Arputham also proposed that some money be spent on helping a widow’s daughter to continue her diploma.
The Matrix Community also looks after girls with mental disabilities, many of whom would have been deliberately undernourished or abandoned without the mission’s assistance.
It also helps widows to generate their own income through a range of co-operative and self-help projects.
Every two years, Lumen Christi sends a delegation of students to visit the mission; putting a human face to both sides of the relationship.
The last such delegation visited in December last year.
“Seeing the school and meeting the boys we’ve heard so much about in recent years was just like catching up with old friends,” the delegation of four students and six staff reported.
“It has certainly given us a new perspective on what is important in life.” Lumen Christi raises funds for the mission throughout the year; including market days and community bingo sessions as well as encouraging students and teachers to donate good-condition clothes, toys and stationery.