By Matters of India Reporter
Thrissur: Kerala’s “Kidney Priest” has embarked on a new mission to drum up support for the survivors of the Ockhi cyclone.
“Food is the god of the one who is hungry,” said Father Davis Chiramel on December 12 before starting a march to Thiruvananthapuram, the Kerala capital, to draw people’s attention to the plight of the cyclone victims and raise funds of the survivors’ rehabilitation.
The cyclone that hit India’s southern coastal region on November 30 killed 52 people and destroyed fishermen hamlets, boats and nets. At least 95 people were listed as missing as on December 13. Thousands of people had to take refuge in shelter homes.
Church leaders, including Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, have urged the federal government to declare the Ockhi as a national cyclone.
Father Chiramel’s march started with a truckload of food items from Vailathur, a village near Thrissur. It ended a day later in Thiruvananthapuram where the priest handed over the material to Archbishop Maria Calist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum, whose archdiocese coordinates relief and rehabilitation works on behalf of the fishermen.
In a video message posted in Facebook before starting what he called “mercy march,” the priest appeals people to support his initiative. “Our fishermen went to the sea not for a picnic but to eke out a living to feed their family members. We should share our thing with the victims,” he says.
He said the cyclone has brought ravaged the coastal region and plunged the entire Kerala in deep grief.
Father Chiramel came to be known as India’s “kidney priest” after he donated one of his kidneys to a poor Hindu farmer who lived in parish area. He also encouraged others to follow his example.
He formed the Kidney Federation of India that has encouraged more than 500,000 people to pledge their kidneys for donation after death. The 56-year-old priest has also started Accident Care and Transport Service to encourage people for organ donation.
Meanwhile the death toll due to Ockhi cyclone rose to 52 on December 12 as more bodies were recovered and the search for the missing fishermen in the high seas continued.
Officials at the state control room monitoring the search operations said six bodies were found off Kozhikode. Two bodies were found off Kochi later in the day.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today urged people to donate toward the Ockhi Cyclone Relief Fund set up by the state government for rehabilitation of the affected families.
Vijayan has urged employees of the state and central governments, private institutions and people in social and cultural fields should contribute generously to the fund.
He also said the help of individuals, institutions and organizations was necessary as a huge amount was needed for taking up rehabilitation projects.