A year  ago, we the Sisters of St. Joseph of Chambery, Nirmala Province, India, ventured into a new mission to work for the migrants nnd their children.  This mission is based at Saligao, GOA. We, Sisters Deepika Dsouza,  Vasantha Mary Joseph, Aplonia Lakra  work together to create a conducive atmosphere for these migrant workers.   We run a Day Care Centre for their kids, and take remedial classes for those attending Government schools nearby. We also visit the families of these migrants, and senior citizens, who are homebound.  Sr Vasantha works for Caritas Goa, at Panjim.

The migrants here are a peace loving population.  They are daily wage earners.  While the men do housekeeping or work at various restaurants, the women move house to house, and work as maids. These are unrecognized workers.  They do not get any benefit from the Government.  They are a fluctuating population.  Due to lockdown, many lost their jobs.  Some could not pay the rent and some returned to their hometowns.

Those who could not find ways o return, found hard to sustain their daily living.  In this pathetic situation they approached us for help.  As a community, we responded to their needs, by generously supplying rations to them.  As the numbers increased, we joined local volunteers in distribution of dry ration kits.  The Government too, came forward and supplied us with some commodities.

The Sisters visited different localities and made a survey of those in most need, and took the family data, to keep records. We reached out to 350 to 400 families in the entire village of Saligao.  Some families received rations thrice, others twice, and some just once.

Some migrants have been working in Goa for many years, and their children have become part of the Goan culture.  Their future is bleak, and they do not know how they will survive in the near future.

Sr. Aplonia a young sister, shares her experience by saying that “the self emptying of Jesus calls us to identify ourselves more and more with Jesus and his concern for humanity, reaching out to the migrants in their difficulties enabled us to see Jesus in them”.

Sisters of Saligao GOA, India