WHEN Mercy Sister Joan Doyle finally accepted a call to religious life at 23, she assumed her vocation would be “behind a piano teaching music”.
Her recent appearance in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall to help launch Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion appeal for 2012 shows God had other plans for her.
Sr Joan is in partnership with Caritas on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, dedicated to bringing hope, healing and education to a people struggling under a burden of immense poverty.
A people so poor, when a family member dies they must go door to door and to people in the streets to find sufficient money for a burial.
Here a mother’s greatest fear is their children will be lost to the criminal gangs so prevalent in this Peruvian capital of about nine million souls.
And here a “gap year” can last the rest of a person’s life.
Yet the Forbes-born Mercy Sister, who has been on mission in this harsh, barren part of the world for the past 15 years, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“There have been many special blessings being with these people in their poverty,” she said.
“Every day I witness their resilience, their deep faith and strong sense that God is always with them.
“For example even going past a church on the bus, they will bless themselves.
“Their example has been a great influence on my own faith and, seeing their sufferings, my own concerns pale into insignificance.”
But even the poorest and simplest of lives can have some consolations.
“These people have a great zest for life and sense of celebration”, Sr Joan said.
“They spend what is a lot of money for them on events like First Communion.
“I’ll be thinking: ‘Gosh, how are they going to eat next week?’
“But they are content to live from day to day.”
Their shared hardships also create a greater sense of solidarity.
“They stick together for survival,” Sr Joan said.
“The closest to this spirit I have seen in Australia was in Brisbane last year during the floods when large numbers pitched in to help less fortunate community members.”
Sr Joan still remembers the night – “January 15, 1994” – when as a 43-year-old, she took the momentous decision to leave Australia on mission to a foreign land.
Looking back, she sees preparations had been underway for a while.
After about six years teaching mainly at Chatswood Catholic Girls’ High, she’d finally “escaped the classroom”.
She was on a Christian Brothers youth apostolate team, running retreats throughout NSW for students in Years 10 to 12.
An immersion trip with young people to India and Pakistan in 1986 proved a turning point.
“I became much more aware of real poverty,” Sr Joan said.
“I felt called to alleviate such injustice, but didn’t quite know how or where … I assumed my work would be Australia.”
Studies in social work were undertaken. This led into work in Child Protection with the NSW Department of Community Services.
“This gave me a close-up look at effects of poverty in our own backyard,” Sr Joan said.
“It was very tough work, though it did make me more determined to do something to make a real difference.”
Meanwhile, she was keeping in touch with two of her Mercy Sister friends working in Chile.
One of them had returned to Australia and Sr Joan and several other women had gone out for dinner on that fateful night in 1994.
“My friend from Chile was talking about the enormous need for a mission to Lima in Peru,” she said.
“Another friend turned to me and said: ‘Surely it must be clear what you need to do?’
“I remember being so excited I couldn’t sleep that night.
“I also remember being worried about my parent’s response as I was very close to them.
“However, they were tremendously accepting.”
Sr Joan arrived in Chile in May 1996, stayed a few weeks then was off to Lima in Peru to visit one of the Mercy Sisters there.
“When I saw the extreme poverty there, I thought this must be where I was truly meant to be,” she said.
“I stayed only a year in Chile before settling in a house in Lima with two other congregation members.
“This was in the northern zone where many fleeing their village homes during decades of guerilla warfare had settled.”
So what’s daily life like in Lima? What are some aspects of the people’s lives which have impressed or moved her?
“I’m especially touched when these people die,” Sr Joan said.
“The way they leave this world highlights their extreme poverty.
“The cemetery for the poor in a way reflects their lives: headstones scattered higgledy-piggledy on a hillside.
“They will sing, pray, talk and drink all night in the presence of the deceased person – much like an Irish wake.
“Next day the coffin is carried to three places of significance to the person.
“The coffin carriers give three bobs of respect at each of these places on the way to burial.
“There’s a tremendous impact in seeing how these people live and die in poverty but have acceptance of this.”
When Sr Joan first arrived in Lima, she found the level of sickness disturbing.
“Nearly every household we visited had at least one sick person,” she said.
“The sickness was often related to pollution in the air or water.
“One such household was a hillside shack.
“Inside the children were frequently having to squat with diarrhoea.
“It turned out the local government agency had run out of water purifying tablets.”
Through witnessing such situations, Sr Joan quickly came to realise health education was the key.
Then Caritas came on board and suddenly there were enough resources to plan significant projects.
“These days we write up a project for Caritas to approve and fund,” she said.
“Our whole aim is to empower people to help themselves by training local leaders.
“These leaders can teach others preventative measures such as seeking medical help when health problems first emerge.
“Awareness of proper hygiene is also obviously of major concern – a major goal this year is to widen the sanitation program.
“Then there’s nutrition – there is actually an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables but often what little money people have goes on foods with poor nutritional value.”
Finally, Sr Joan has a message for the people of Queensland.
“There is still so much that needs to be done in Lima.
“However, on behalf of these impoverished people, I would like to thank you.
“Your generosity to Project Compassion and other Caritas appeals has already helped many and will help many more.
“I feel moved by this generosity – especially considering Queensland has had its own disasters in the recent past.
“Yet people are still prepared to reach out to others in need.
“It’s very encouraging for all of us.”
