The Jesuit presence had been clearly missing in the whole of
Vidarbha region in north-eastern Maharashtra. This has now
been corrected. Fr. Oscar Pereira SJ, who has a deep love for
the North-East moved from NE India to N-E Maharashtra.
With this our Province took a fresh step in its work for the
very poor by starting a new Centre at Akola District in
Amravati Diocese. Oscar had already done two
preliminary surveys of the place between March and June to
select a suitable location for his base and found this at
Akola District, which as he said, “was surrounded by extreme
poverty”. On 28 July, Oscar had the whole community of
Vinayalaya around as we blessed his new 10-seater Mahindra Max
jeep and wished him God’s blessings. It is a great example of
the Jesuit Magis that Oscar, who came back from Assam dying of
blood cancer, has got himself back into good enough shape to
take on the challenge of opening a new centre in a difficult
location.
The Bombay Jesuits are concentrated on the west side of
Maharashtra with no presence in Vidarbha which covers
north-east of the state. About 3 years ago, Bishop Edwin
Colaco of Amravati invited the Bombay Jesuits to work there. A
factfinding survey team of Frs. James Mascarenhas, Maurice
Henriques and John Misquitta SJ was sent in 2004. They came
back saying that there was great need of our work because of
the widespread poverty in the area. However, because of lack
of Jesuit personnel, we were unable to send anybody until now.
Fr. Oscar Pereira agreed to start a new centre in this area
and went for an exploratory survey from 27 March to 3 April.
After making a detailed study of 3 districts, Melghat, Akola
and Yevatmal, he concluded that it would be best to work in
Akola where “there is widespread poverty and a large
percentage of advisasis living Below-Poverty-Line conditions.
Oscar will rent a place to start with and will engage staff.
The key focus of his work will be building up the financial
self-sufficiency of the people through self-help groups, a
work that he
was
eminently successful at in the north-east. The Province will
cover all his initial set-up costs including the jeep, a
motor-cycle and a computer and other needed facilities as well
as running costs for six months. Oscar has already prepared
and submitted projects to funding agencies that are expected
to expand his work greatly in the future.
Events
New
Centre at Akola District
was
eminently successful at in the north-east. The Province will
cover all his initial set-up costs including the jeep, a
motor-cycle and a computer and other needed facilities as well
as running costs for six months. Oscar has already prepared
and submitted projects to funding agencies that are expected
to expand his work greatly in the future.