The testimony of a family of blind people who share what they receive with the whole town. Fr Basil Rohan Fernando: “His honesty touched me.” In the midst of the food emergency, eight thousand families receive support through aid packages from the dioceses.
Colombo (Asia News) – “It is not necessary to buy new shoes for everyone: some can continue using the ones they have. Also, we do not want new socks, we can continue using the old ones”. Sri Lanka is on its knees due to the economic crisis – which has added to the already harsh ordeal of the pandemic. And in this situation, the most beautiful testimony of solidarity comes from the poor. This is what Father Basil Rohan Fernando, national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, tells us, taking as an example a blind family that lives with his children in the town of Nayanagam.
“I met them almost by chance, in 2008”, continues Father Fernando. “It was on my way back to Colombo, driving in my car: I saw two small children and two adults standing on the side of the road. One of the children was waving a cloth for people to stop to buy clothes. When I got closer, The boy told his father: “Daddy, there is a priest. He started calling me and saying “God bless you. Only then did I realize that both parents were blind,” he says.
“They hadn’t eaten for days,” recalls the priest. “So I went to a nearby supermarket and bought everything I could, for them. I watched them go home happy. I left them my card, and invited them to call me, to provide books for the children, for the new school year After a few days, the mother called me and said: ‘Thank you father, but instead of books just for our children, can’t you buy shoes for all the children in town who have to go to school?’ “His honesty touched me.”
In Nanyanagam there were 45 children, but in the end 30 pairs of shoes were bought. “Some can continue using the old ones,” they told me. And Father Fernando adds: “What strikes me is this: they know that I want to help them, but they never take advantage of the help for them. They want the whole community to benefit from the help.”
So now there will also be a scholarship for a young man from Nayagam who wants to be a doctor, in addition to paying electricity bills to support some families, aid for funeral and wedding expenses. During Covid, this community could not go out to find food, so the Pontifical Mission Societies began distributing food parcels to 70 families. And this help continues to this day.
“To combat the hunger caused by the economic crisis in Sri Lanka”, says Father Fernando, “we have spent more than 120 million rupees (about 330,000 euros) to feed 8,000 families in the 12 dioceses of Sri Lanka. But the result More important is the message that this story conveys. “When we have more, we must share, because they are all our brothers and sisters”, comments Father Basil Rohan. “This is what I have learned in my 25 years of priesthood among the last” .
