Mumbai: Children with special needs in Mumbai, western India, will celebrate Mother Teresa’s canonization with a variety of programs.
The Missionaries of Charity, who manage Asha Daan (gift of hope) in Byculla, a Mumbai suburb, will organize the celebration from August 30 through September 1.
Children from three schools were seen rehearsing their parts for the occasion a week ahead.
Teresa Assisi of Anza Special School is partnering with the Missionaries of Charity nuns for the event. “We will host a drawing and painting competition August 30 followed by a skit competition the next day and rangoli September 1,” she told The Times of India. The participating schools, she said, are CJM Special School and Shirodkar Special School, besides hers.
Rangoli is the traditional Indian art of creating patterns on the floor of rooms or courtyards using materials such as colored rice, dry flour, sand or flower petals.
Mother Teresa founded Asha Daan, an institute for challenged children, in 1976. It has around 400 residents from all religions and 12 nuns to see to their daily needs.
Sr Tracy, who heads the center, had worked with Mother Teresa for two or three years in Kolkata, and has known her for over two decades. “Mother was a soft spoken person of sharp intellect and a godly heart. She would remember the names of nuns who had even met her occasionally,” she added.