By Lissy Maruthanakuzhy

Pune, Feb 5, 2022: Maher (“My mother’s home” in Marathi), an organization working for destitute women, children and men, in various parts of India, is celebrating its silver jubilee these days.

The organization on February 2 completed 25 years of service.

It is celebrating the jubilee with several celebrations at its various locations with due attention to the pandemic restrictions.

The celebrations began January 26, India’s Republic Day, at Vadhu in Bhima Koregaon near Pune.

On February 5, it organized two programs at Maher, Vatsalyadham, Manjari Khurd, Avhalwadi.

Other celebrations are on February 11 at Vadgaonsheri and the following day at Sanaswadi.

Sister Lucy Kurien Vakkachalil, the founder director of Maher, is grateful that she “could do something for God’s people” in the past 25 years.

Sister Lucy, as she is popularly known, founded Maher at Vadhu, an interior village in Maharashtra in 1997 for sheltering destitute women. She launched the organization after she witnessed an incident where a man burnt his pregnant wife. Gradually her service was extended to men and children.

According to Sister Lucy, Maher now has reached the poorest of the poor through its 24 different outreach programs. They include 700 village self-help groups and 63 interfaith-cast-free homes that shelter 98 children, 572 destitute women, and men. The centers are in Maharashtra, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and Karnataka.

Maher records show that during the past 25 years the organization has provided care and shelter for more than 5,000 children, 5,900 women and 492 men.

“We have been able to reach out to the needy through Maher because of the fund of good will it has created in India and abroad,” Sister Lucy told Matters India.

The member of the Holy Cross of Chavanod is grateful “to all the benefactors who have shown their confidence in Maher’s work and have continued their support constantly.”

She continued: “I never thought I could do such a thing as Maher. Only when I started doing I realized my strength. At first I had the fear of different culture and language of the interior village I had chosen to work. I was a single religious woman starting something new in a male dominated society. I had no support from the Church at the start. I was in my late 30’s in age and I had the anxiety and the fear of making a mistake? The more I felt weak, I surrendered to the Lord my desires. I asked him, Lord, keep my feet on the right path.”

The pioneering nun said she had no helps in the beginning because “I was not sure if I was getting people with right intention and motives.”

Sister Lucy, who can manage to converse in Hindi and Marthi, the language of Maharashtra, has managed to draw many volunteers and staff, “who have played a wonderful role in Maher’s growth. I admire their love, support and spirit.”

She says she was able to share more when she got out of herself.

“I am called to give like a mother. A mother never takes rest. Children move around always. I feel our transparency of life also counts. I am called to be transparent all the time. For this I give full credit to my family. We grew experiencing full trust and love between parents and siblings. They lived a transparent life,” she shared her life in Maher.

Speaking about her life, Sister Lucy said her mother never wanted her to become a nun. “For her it was an escape from married life and reality of life. She is 92 now and still has not accepted my choice. But I feel the Divine had already called me. My father stood by me when he realized that I was firm in my decision.”

Maher’s work has been appreciated internationally and by eminent dignitaries in India, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratiba Patil, and several federal and state ministers.