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Holy Family Hospital Mandar, India Caring for rural villagers in a countryside hospital is one of hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world try to be a healing presence to others today. Begun by our Sisters in 1947, Holy Family Hospital Mandar, in the Ranchi District of northern India, was established to provide rural medical care in India. The local Adivasi people, who had never had access to health care, began to come immediately, even from miles away. A nursing school, the first Catholic one in Jharkhand, was started two years later. Fifteen of our Sisters are involved with the hospital, its community outreach programs, and the nursing school. Today, the 100-bed hospital focuses on the basic services of general medicine, general surgery, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology. Its community health programs, which have helped to educate many villagers on sanitation, nutrition, child care, and preventable diseases, continue with leadership training, immunizations, home visits, eye camps, and government-sponsored initiatives. The hospital’s Alternative Systems of Medicine outreach includes an herbal garden and complementary therapies, and encourages a holistic approach to living, health promotion, and the prevention of illness. The RIHAA/Kripa Substance Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center offers preventive, promotive, and curative services. Detoxification, counseling and awareness sessions for clients, and many services for families, parishes, and schools, are offered along with AA meetings and intensive follow-up. In the mid-1970s, Holy Family Hospital began an agricultural program to prevent famine when monsoons failed. Migration to the cities then diminished, because families had enough food to last throughout the year. Today our Sisters grow vegetables, fruits and farm produce for meals enjoyed by the nursing students, staff and patients.
Our Sisters have been instrumental in forming and guiding self-help groups in the local villages. Each group has follow-up every 15 days. The members have been trained in collective income-generating projects such as candle, soap, and pickle making. With our help, some of the people have formed public meetings at the village level called Gram Sabhas and are able to now be more self-ruling.
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