Trim volunteer plans three-month trip to India

Last year, Winifred Farry from Trim volunteered with the Hope Foundation in Calcutta/Kolkata from August to November and is planning to return to Kolkata on 18th March to volunteer for another three months. She has volunteered many times with charities in Uganda and Belarus for shorter trips over recent years but wanted to do something longer term and, last year, spent three months with the Hope Foundation in India. While volunteering with the Hope Foundation, Ms Farry worked in a hospice for men, women and children affected by HIV and TB. These people come from extreme poverty, and thanks to The Hope Foundation, they receive retroviral drug therapy and TB drug therapy as well as counselling, psychiatric, spiritual and nutritional care. She also worked in a rehabilitation hospital sponsored by The Hope Foundation for children suffering with malformed limbs. Approximately 30 million children in India are orthopedically disabled and these children, who are from very poor backgrounds, otherwise would not be able to avail of treatment or receive the necessary operations to correct or improve malformations and give them a better quality of life. Everywhere, Ms Farry witnessed terrible suffering; this is an account of what she saw. "A blind lady whose internal organs were prolapsed was lying almost naked in her urine and faeces under a filthy bed on a filthy floor, in a filthy ward. All her bones were sticking out. She was starving, forgotten by most and voiceless. She had no bedding and stank because she had no-one to care for her. "Two more ladies lay naked under a filthy sluice bench. They were curled up in the foetal position in their own excreta and buckets of disinfectant filthy water were thrown in around them by staff as if they were not there at all. They were skeletal, voiceless and unable to offer any resistance. They were starving and powerless. The smell was torturous. "Another lady who was also naked lay, totally exposed in a bed with very badly infested bedding. She had been catheterised and her tubes were covered with faeces. She was lying helpless in these conditions and received no care. Her eyes rolled in pain and tears ran down her face. "Another lady who had thick, curly and very bushy hair was being eaten alive with head lice. I cut her hair to the scalp, first protecting my own hair with a shower cap. Each handful of hair was walking with crawlers. You could see a sea of lice crawling on her scalp, and crawling down her body. I washed her and treated her scalp. Her bedding reeked with infection. She smiled a smile I will not forget. She put her arms out to give me a hug. I will never forget that hug. She shared that bed with a lady who just cries and shakes her head. "A lady who is dying lay half-naked, and totally exposed. Her bed was filthy and had a hole in the middle of the mattress where the metal cuts into her skeletal skin and she was suffering with terrible bed sores. Flies crawled on her. She winced in pain, and her face expressed inexplicable torture. She does not even get offered a sip of water. She, too, lay in her excreta. "This is such a crime against humanity and against women. Please help me to return as huge good has come from my last visit. Many lives were saved. Their pain must be made to count for something really good. Please support the Hope Foundation who are alleviating so much suffering every day." Winifred Farry can be contacted on (046) 943 6040 or (087) 280 8820 or by email at wfarry@hotmail.com