Miguel Cavallé, L.C., completed his fifteenth summer mission in Calcutta, a city emblematic for being the place where Mother Teresa began her work with the most needy. Since 2008, Fr. Cavallé has dedicated summers to this mission, along with volunteers willing to experience and contribute to this noble cause.
«What you find there is a very complicated, very complex situation,» says Father Cavallé. Calcutta, although it has changed since Mother Teresa's time, remains a challenge. The mission focuses on helping in the centers founded by Mother Teresa, where volunteers collaborate with the Sisters of Charity in caring for “the last”, the poorest of the poor.
The mornings of the mission are dedicated to working in three specific centers, where volunteers perform various tasks to support the sisters. In addition, they face the challenge of helping people on the streets and in the poorest areas of the city, distributing food to 300 families, thanks to donations collected before the trip.
The mission was part of a solidarity project of the VIDA Foundation, where the volunteers helped paint a center for differently abled children on the outskirts of Calcutta. «We spent time with the children, who showed us everything they had done during the year,» says Father Cavallé. A special day was the visit to the zoo, a much-anticipated annual experience for the children.
LIFE (Volunteer for International Development Association) started on December 8, 2010, with the objective of helping in India. A year later, he started VIS Foundation (Villagio for International Solidarity), The project, a more ambitious one, is currently carrying out humanitarian initiatives in 26 countries on four continents.
The main objective of all this is to support children so that they can have access to quality education and prepare for a better future, also taking care of their nutrition and health.
In India, VIDA also reaches out to lepers, abandoned elderly and disabled people, reflecting the particular situation of the country. The young volunteers, many with previous experience, find in this mission a transformative opportunity that touches their hearts and changes their hierarchy of values. «It helps them to deepen their life and to question their faith,» says Fr. Cavallé, especially those who are farthest removed from any religious practice.
They all agree that it is an experience that revolutionizes them internally, requiring them to review their lives and rethink how to live more humanely and help the less fortunate.
The mission in Calcutta is carried out annually and is open to those who wish to participate, after an admission process for the mission. This summer, in addition to the mission in India, missions were carried out in Bosnia-Herzegovina to rebuild houses still affected by the war in the Balkans; and in El Salvador, to support very poor communities.
Cavallé is currently on his way to Rwanda, where he will collaborate with the Rwandan Bishops' Conference in a center for orphaned children, founded by St. John Paul II after the Rwandan genocide.
To learn more about VIS Foundation and VIDA, please visit their website at here.
