By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy

Pune: A Catholic nun, who manages homes for the destitute in various parts of India, has come forward to help the government fight the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Let us make life a little better as sadness and negativity spreads across India,” says Sister Lucy Kurian, founder director of “Maher” (Mother’s House), a community and interfaith organization for abused and destitute women and children.

The 64-year-old nun has offered one of her houses in Pune, western India, to the government to use for people who are in need. For this, she shifted the residents of the orphanage to another house.

“We have vacated one of our homes for people from villages who need to be isolated due to the pandemic. We have also kept aside two ambulances for this purpose,” Sister Kurian told Matters India on April 29.

She also said that her organization will distribute cooked food, grains, clothes, sanitizers and masks for those in need.

Explaining that her organization was started to help people rejected by society, the Catholic nun said many are still in need, especially in this time of pandemic.

“Everything is shut down during the pandemic. In villages people have small houses and do not have places for isolation. Hence our service continues,” she added.

Maher was started 24 years ago for people on the margins: mentally challenged, unwed mothers, orphans, elderly men and women.

Spread across six states Maher caters totally to hundreds of people irrespective of their creed and caste.

The first center was opened in Pune. Now 700 destitute people live in four homes in the city, considered the cultural and educational capital of Maharashtra state.

The latest home was opened in February this year for “Homeless Women” at Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. It is situated at the Village Reconstruction Project (VRO) started by late Jesuit Father Michael Windey.

Meanwhile, Pune district reported 9,413 coronavirus cases on April 28, which pushed its caseload to 817,633, a health official said.

The death toll in the district reached 12,762 as 154 patients succumbed to the infection during the day, he said.

“Of these new cases, 3,978 were reported from the areas located within the Pune municipal Corporation limits, where the infection count has now reached 410,504,” the official said.

Pune city’s neighboring industrial township of Pimpri Chinchwad reported 1,956 cases, where the Covid-19 tally mounted to 205,901.