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Our community “Yuvathi Sharan” is situated in Prabhadevi, the heart of Mumbai, India, where there is vast disparity between the haves and the have-nots. In the close vicinity of our institution, there are a few slum-dwellers, migrants since many years, living in utter poverty. They have settled in Mumbai from different states of India for the sake of their livelihood.
We, as a community have been catering to the needs of one of these families – a Hindu family having five children (four girls and one boy). The father is the only breadwinner – driver of a hired taxi, the mother is sickly, the four girls have stopped their studies because of financial constraints but they engage themselves in temporary and uncertain jobs in order to have at least one square meal a day. The boy continues his studies but at times is irregular because of his misbehavior. All the earning of the father is spent on the wife’s medicines, and as a result, the children go hungry to bed.
At times, we extend some financial help in paying their house rent, the boy’s school fees, and medical expenses when the woman is admitted in the hospital, and make time to listen to them and counsel them.
But in a particular manner, from 19th of November 2017 when our beloved Pope Francis instituted the World Day of the Poor, we as a community made a firm decision to share our food with this poor family in the slums by providing them lunch and dinner on every Sunday without fail. Until today, we have been faithful to this decision and we are happy to serve the Lord in the poor for He has said: “whatsoever you do to the least of my needy brethren, you do it to me”.