NEPAL - Abandoned elderly find hope through Blessed Teresa's nuns
KATHMANDU (UCAN) - In a country where it is increasingly commonplace to abandon the elderly, the Missionaries of Charity (MC) sisters provide a loving refuge in a government home they work in.

"Most youngsters consider their old parents a burden," Surendra Prasad Joshi, a retired university professor, says.

Traditional care of the elderly within the extended family is breaking down in Nepal, according to Joshi, who now volunteers as secretary to the MC Sisters in Nepal.

He said that economic pressures add to the problem as most youngsters head overseas to find work. Furthermore, with the trend toward nuclear families these days, fewer young people are looking after their parents. "Many parents are literally thrown out of homes; they are either dropped off at old age homes or in temples," he added.

At one government-run facility for the elderly at least, located on the premises of the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, they get loving care from the MC nuns who work there.

"I am happy here," says 80-year-old Bir Bahadur Gurung, whose sons left him to fend for himself as he grew older and weaker. "I get to eat and I have friends with whom I can talk with, and the sisters always take good care of us."

The MC sisters first started their Nepal mission in 1980 following a visit to Kathmandu by Blessed Teresa of Kolkata.

"During her visit, 'Mother' cleaned the toilets at the home and later convinced the late Queen Aishwarya Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah to give the sisters a part of the home" to work in, said Sister Rose Therese, head of the MC sisters in Nepal.

They now have 32 elderly people in their care. The nuns bathe, feed and wash the clothes of residents who cannot perform daily chores.

"The sisters are my family. Had it not been for them, I would have died a long time ago," said 87-year-old Padma Kumari who was abandoned by her sons six years ago after she found out she was suffering from tuberculosis.

Being old in a country like Nepal is a "curse," she said sadly.

Kanchha Khadka, 73, who lost his sight 18 years ago, says he is lucky to be in the "sweet care" of the nuns.

Sister Bernadine, who leads the team of three MC Sisters at the home, told UCA News that her order tends to be given people who need the most care. Volunteers also visit the home and help, while the government provides food, medicine, doctors and nurses, she added.

Joshi says that in Devghat in Chitwan, central Nepal, one of the most sacred places in Hinduism, hundreds of abandoned elderly people live in huts and fend for themselves.

"People here believe that if they die at Devghat they will go to heaven. but looking at it from a social point of view, elderly people go there when the hardship at home is too difficult to bear," he said.

According to HelpAge International, a global network working for the elderly, six percent of the 28.5 million people in Nepal are aged over 60.

There are currently nine MC sisters stationed in three centers in Nepal.