Pics: Abhijith N Kolpe
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru, Feb 15: It an emotional reunion at White Doves here, a woman who went missing over a decade ago got back to her family from Tamil Nadu here on Saturday February 15.
Lurdhumary (46) had gone missing 14 years ago from her hometown Kortampet, Tamil Nadu. Ten years ago, she was found by Pandeshwer police, who brought her to White Doves home late one evening.
At the time, all she could answer was that her name was Mary. Since she spoke Tamil it was assumed that she must be from Tamil Nadu. She remained an inmate with the White Doves and was on psychiatric treatment.
Things changed for the better when Fr John Lewis from Tamil Nadu paid a courtesy visit to White Doves a week ago for the first time.
Jerald Fernandes, manager of White Doves requested the priest to speak to the Tamil inmates and find their families. Fr John spoke to Mary in Tamil and asked about her hometown. Surprisingly, she remembered her hometown Kortampet. The priest from Kortampet was contacted and he announced in the church about one Mary found in Mangaluru. Someone who knew Mary's family contacted Mary's daughter, who is studying paramedical course in Coimbatore. She in turn informed her elder brother who works as a driver. Both were elated that their mother was alive.
Mary has three children. The eldest son Kulandaiyesu works as a driver, and was around 9 years when his mother disappeared. The second is a daughter, Gnana Anthony, doing her paramedical course in Coimbatore. The third daughter Rackeal Lisiya is studying in 12th in a boarding school in Tirpathur. She was only a few months old when her mother disappeared.
A year after Mary disappeared, her husband Johnson passed away, and presuming she was dead after many years of waiting, even her name was deleted from the ration card.
After 14 long years, Mary has now been reunited with her family through White Doves. Mary's daughter Gnana Anthony and her son Kulandaiyesu came to Mangaluru to take her back home. The mother and children had an emotional reunion, and the latter thanked White Doves for taking care of Mary for all these years.
About White Doves
White Doves, an NGO founded by Corrine Rasquinha in the early 1990s with the motto to reach out to the least, last and lost has been running homes for the destitute and mentally challenged since 25 years. Over 600 destitute picked up from the streets of Mangalore have been rehabilitated and over 195 have been reached back to their homes all over India including Nepal after a total recovery from their mental illness. Presently there are 150 men, women and children residing in the three homes run by the White Doves at Matadakani, Kulshekar and Jail road in Mangaluru.
This is the only home of its kind in Mangalore where the destitute is picked from the streets and nursed back to normalcy and having a licence from the district administration to take care of Psychiatric destitute. In addition the White doves feeds over a 150 to 200 hungry mouths on the streets on daily basis. The other works of White doves being building homes for homeless, educating the poor, providing rations to the marginalised of society and providing succour to the poor patients.
White Doves has rehabilitated over 600 destitute picked up from the streets of Mangaluru and have reunited 389 destitute with their families after treatment all over India including Nepal and Bangladesh.