By Emilie Ng
TWO Catholic women have a new reason to “get up in the morning” as they prepare for a “confronting” trip to an Indian orphanage this September.
Beenleigh Catholic parishioners Betty Graver and Inge Meier will spend one month at an orphanage run by the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers.
Twelve MCBS priests live in Queensland, including Beenleigh parish priest Fr Joseph Kanatt, who gave Mrs Graver the idea to visit their Indian orphanage.
Mrs Graver, 82, has spent almost one year searching for someone to accompany her at the Blessed Mother Teresa Home in Adalibad diocese, India.
She found her “match” in Mrs Meier, a fellow parishioner and retired preschool teacher who has “dreamed” of spending time helping an overseas community.
Mrs Meier has volunteered with local non-profit organisation Rosies and went on an immersion to East Timor through Catholic Mission.
“I feel very strongly in growing old but you have to do something, to get off the couch, so you don’t fall apart,” she said.
“Especially if you get older you have to have a reason to get up in the morning, that keeps you happy, keeps you young, keeps you (mentally alert).
“Just look out – there’s so much need.”
This will be her first time to India, where a more “confronting” reality of poverty awaits, according to her trip leader, Mrs Graver, who will make her sixth trip to the country.
“It’s not a pretty picture when you go over there,” Mrs Graver said.
“You see them as young as three years old, sitting in the gutters.
“And you ask somebody where they’ll sleep that night, and they say, ‘Oh, they’ll sleep there’.
“But then you realise you can come back to something lovely and they don’t, they have to stay in that filth where they are.
“I wouldn’t put a cat in that filth.
“I still feel [the tears] today.”
This will be Mrs Graver’s first trip to India under her own privately funded Australian Catholic charity supporting the Blessed Mother Teresa Home.
The charity has given more than $5000 to the orphanage, thanks to gracious friends and the community at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Beenleigh.
“I want to say a big thank-you to St Patrick’s,” Mrs Graver said.
“Over the years they have been immensely, financially supportive of me.
“I can’t thank them enough (for) what they’ve done for me.”
When the two women reach India in September, Mrs Graver will hand over another $5000 cheque straight into the hands of the MCBS priests looking after the orphanage.
“Australian money converts to more rupees, and $1000 is worth at least 25,000 rupees,” she said.
Fr Kanatt said the three MCBS priests working at the orphanage were excited to welcome the two women who have offered their support.
The Beenleigh parish priest, who helped start the MCBS priets’ mission in Adalibad three years ago, said the orphanage was in a region that did not have many Catholics, but the priests were there for “indirect evagelisation”.
“We are indirectly giving the message of God’s love to the people,” Fr Kanatt said.
Mrs Graver and Mrs Meier will be the first people outside of India helping with the orphans in Adalibad.
Mrs Graver said she was drawn to helping young children in oprhanages because she grew up as an orphan in England.
“I’m doing what God wants me to do because I was an orphan myself,” she said.
“I just like helping people less fortunate than myself.
“My mind is always on something to do for them. It’s not on me anymore; it’s on them.”
Mrs Meier said: “We are all rich in this country, and we have an obligation to help others.”
Mrs Graver said there was still time for anyone interested in supporting her and Mrs Meier on the trip in September.
“If I got another $5000, I’d pay somebody’s fare to come with me,” she said.
Mrs Graver challenged young Catholics to join her and “see how young people are coping with nothing”.
“Young people should come on a trip and see for themselves how the other half lives,” she said.
