Indian nun listed 12 among world’s 100 most inspiring people

By Jose Kavi

New Delhi: An Austrian magazine has listed a Catholic nun from India among 100 people, who influenced the world the most during the crises-ridden 2020.

The “OOOM” has placed Sister Lucy Kurien, founder director of the Pune-based Maher, 12th in the list, just above the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis.

The magazine says 2020 was a year no one ever expected. “The world today is different than it was 12 months ago. Which people have inspired, motivated and excited us most in this 2020 crisis? To whom do we owe leadership on the way to a better future? For the fifth time, OOOM presents the large ranking “OOOM 100: The World’s Most Inspiring People.”

“The OOOM editors and a prominent jury – including star designer Stefan Sagmeister, London’s Serpentine Galleries director Hans Ulrich Obrist, world-class geneticist Josef Penninger, gallery owner Thaddaeus Ropac and wallpaper manager Gilles Massé – contributed to the ranking. Every ranking is subjective. But it shows which people actually impressed us over the past year.”

The list is topped by Ugur Sahin, a German scientist and developer of the Covid-19 vaccine co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, who gave the world a new hope. His vaccine is a key component in the battle against a virus that has already claimed 1.7 million lives. The research he conducted with his wife Özlem Tureci has led to the most important medical development of our time.

The second in the list is Kamala Harris, future Vice President of the United States, followed by Joe Biden, 46th President of the United States.

Elon Musk, Tesla and SpaceX boss, was placed fourth, Anthony Fauci, immunologist, advisor to US President Donald Trump (5) and Emmanuelle Charpentier, 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (6).

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, comes seventh, followed by Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex (8), Sanna Marin, Prime Minister of Finland (9) and Michelle Obama, bestselling author, for First Lady of the US (10).

OOOM, founded in 2008, is a leading Public Relations, communications, marketing, and brand development company based in Vienna, Austria.

The magazine hails Sister Kurien a “heroine” for pulling thousands of children off the streets in India with her aid organization Maher.

Sister Kurien, a member of the Holy Cross of Chavanod, founded (“My mother’s home” in the Marathi language), a string of homes for people who live in poverty in various parts of India. Kurien says she believes serving others irrespective of caste or religion is the best way to show God’s love for humans through Christ.

She said the Covid-19 lockdown was a challenging time for her organization. She said approximately 40 women, some with children, arrived at Maher seeking asylum as the lockdown began in India on March 25.

“We have to take care of four walls in this period — physical strength, emotional strength, mental strength and spiritual strength — to counter any external threat to our well-being,” the member of the Sisters of the Cross of Chavanod told globalsistersreport.org.

Kurien said she and her team provided food for more than 25,000 migrant laborers who were stranded by the lockdown. “Many of them had lost their jobs and were going to their native places.”

Her staff studied the situation in the slums in an 85-kilometer radius around the shelter and then provided cooked meals for around 600 people daily.

“Our relief-work teams provided masks, sanitizers and medical help to around 6,000 vulnerable families. Besides, we also reached out to 4,000 people in 21 villages,” Kurien added.

Maher is known for its charitable services, and police officers have brought six young women who were raped and got pregnant to the shelter so far during the pandemic.

“We attended to their delivery cases in the hospital and now care for the mothers and the babies,” Kurien said. “Policemen brought to us 20 children, too. Five of them lost their parents and were employed for rag-picking by others. Informed by the neighbors, police saved and brought them to Maher.”

Maher also held two mental health workshops during the lockdown, as it was concerned about mental health issues among women and children.

Sister Kurien was the only Catholic among 20 women that the Indian government honored with the Nari Shakti Puraska, a women’s empowerment award, on March 8, 2016, International Women’s Day, for outstanding contribution to society.

Other Indians in the “OOM” list are Nipun Mehta, founder of ServiceSpace, and Deepak Chopra, annspirational leader.

The list also includes Darren Walker, president of Ford Foundation, Christian Drosten, a virologist who set the foundation for coronavirus measures, philanthropist Bill Gates, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Environmental activist Greta Thunberg, Josef Penninger, a geneticist who developed a Covid-19 treatment awaiting approval, singer Lady Gaga, Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of The New York Times and the most important journalist in the world, Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, Oprah Winfrey, the Voice of America, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, Jane Fonda, iconic actress, philanthropist Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hong Kong politician Nathan Law, and Leonardo DiCaprio, Global conscience activist.