Pathways to Children – Kolkata 2018

A Day at Jan Seva School and Clinic

Pathways to Children is the major funding source for the operation of the Jan Seva School and Clinic and the related community outreach projects.  Jan Seva and its programs are made possible through a partnership with the Society for Indian Children’s Welfare, an experienced and dedicated charitable organization with a long history of supporting children and families.  Jan Seva’s mission is to give severely impoverished women and children in Kolkata the necessary education and skills to lift themselves out of poverty while caring for their basic nutritional and medical needs so that they can learn and thrive.

Receiving the traditional Hindu blessing and welcome
Morning assembly to say the Indian pledge of allegiance and to sing the Indian national anthem

Many people generously donated supplies for the school, supplies to make jewelry for the women’s vocational training and medical supplies for the health clinic.  Thank you for helping support this meaningful cause.
Inspecting the sewing machines in the women’s vocational training center
The University of Minnesota School of Public Health teammeets with the Jan Seva                                         school administrators and community health coordinators

Clinic at Gandhiji Prem Nivas

The Lions Club generously donated 600 pairs of glasses to be contributed to residents at the Missionaries of Charity Leper Colony.  Pathways to Children hired an eye doctor for a day to examine the patients and to prescribe the glasses.  The reception was overwhelming.  The line was endless.  We ran out of time before we ran out of patients or glasses.  Thank you to the Lions Club for enabling these patients to see clearly for the first time.
Notice the head covering

Gandhiji Prem Nivas – Missionaries of Charity Leper Colony

Then Mother, now Saint, Teresa of Calcutta started the Leper Colony in 1958.  The Sisters and Brothers of Missionaries of Charity developed the Colony to be a self-sufficient community for the physical, mental, financial and spiritual health of leprosy patients.  In addition to the living quarters, the Colony has a handloom area, a foot wear area for specially designed sandals and boots, a carpentry section, a tailoring unit, an agriculture center, an animal husbandry area, a canteen, and a school.
Entering Gandhiji Prem Nivas
Observing the looms – the fabric for the habits worn by the Missionary of Charities around the world
is woven at the Colony
A resident spins the yarn


Families, whether or not infected, live together in the community
Fr. Borello explains the fabric dying process to the troops
The team at work

Kolkata – 2018

This is the story of a trip to Kolkata, India to serve those in great need and, along the way, to learn that non nobis solum nati sumus (not for ourselves alone are we born).  The group includes the team from St. John Vianney College Seminary – a group of twelve seminarians led by Fr. Becker and Fr. Borello – and three graduate students from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

Leaving the gates of the Mission House – home base for the trip
One of many shuttle bus rides to and from the service projects.
Mass at the Missionaries of Charity Mother House – the tomb of St. Teresa of Calcutta is in the foreground
 See subsequent days blogs here.    See the St. John Vianney seminarian blogs here.