By Matters India Reporter

Secunderabad, July 18, 2020: The premier healthcare organization of the Catholic Church in India has announced the Disability Award to honor its founder Sister Mary Glowrey, an Australian.

The Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), which set up the award in partnership with the Liliane Fonds of the Netherlands, has invited nominations for the Liliane Brekelmans 2020.

On the occasion of CHAI’s Platinum Jubilee in 2018, Liliane Fonds announced funding for ‘Mary Glowrey-Liliane Brekelmans Disability Award.’ This award was instituted as a token of appreciation for CHAI’s services to 33,000 young people with disabilities in the past 25 years, said CHAI director-general Father Mathew Abraham said in a press release.

A total amount of 600,000 rupees will be given as award money under four categories, the press release said.

The goal of the award is to recognize exemplary work by organizations and individuals in the field of disability and honor the resilience of people with disabilities, said Father Abraham, a Redemptorist priest who is also a physician.

A screening committee will delineate procedural criteria, invite as well as shortlist nominations. Nominations will be invited from persons and organizations fulfilling eligibility criteria.

The committee will shortlist five nominations in each category. The top five nominations will be verified and shared with the selection committee. Nominations are invited until August 15, India’s Independence Day.

The date of the award ceremony will be announced later, depending on the Covid-19 situation in India.

Sister Glowrey, a member of the Congregation of the Society of Jesus Mary Joseph, founded CHAI as the Catholic Hospital Association of India, in 1943. Over the past 78 year, it has grown into the world’s largest health care organization in the voluntary sector.

Sister Glowrey came to Guntur, a town in the southern India, in 1920 with a new vision and a definite mission. She founded the association with 15 sisters with the goal of providing curative care to people, especially to the poor, women and children.

Sister Glowrey, who died in Bangalore from cancer on May 5, 1957 at 69 years of age, is a Servant of God, the first stage in the canonization process.

During the first 14 years, nuns managed CHAI. As the association grew in strength, its vision got broadened. Promoting community health, CHAI began to see health as a basic human right.

Today, CHAI has 3,520 member institutions — 1,409 dispensaries, 913 health centers, and 928 hospitals – with more than 50,000 beds. It also has 210 disability rehabilitation centers, and 90 holistic care centers for PLHIV (persons living with HIV).

The awards are instituted in two categories; for individuals and for organizations who are role models in the field of disability. The awards are instituted separately for nominees from the CHAI network and from outside the CHAI network.

Nuns, who work as doctors, nurses or social workers, head as many as 92 percent of CHAI members. Nearly 84 percent of them serve in medically underserved areas.

CHAI has 11 regional units in India. Its members provide medical care to more than 21 million people in a year – with a team of 1,000 Sister-Doctors; 25,000 Sister-Nurses; 10,000 plus Sister-paraprofessionals.

It also has around 40,000 nuns and priests, who are social workers, and a huge number of lay employees.