Buies Creek, N.C.—Unlike many of India’s popular movies, there are few happy endings in the slums of Calcutta, a city filled with street people where Campbell University students served over 250 children and adults on a mission trip sponsored by the Office of the Campus Minister over winter break.
From Dec. 27-Jan. 7, eight Campbell University students accompanied by Graduate Assistant for International Student Services Heather Webb and Terry Tucker, Ministry Assistant for Campus Ministries, traveled to India to work with the international mission organization, Missionaries of Charity. The group was there to do whatever it could for the people served at the mission centers of Dum Dum, for women, and Nabo Jibon, for men, and the legions of people, both adults and children, who are victims of India’s overpopulation and generational poverty.
“They are so poor because, among other things, over population drains natural resources,” said Webb. “And there is a long history of poverty due to the caste system.”
The caste system in India is a form of social stratification in which people are divided into classes according to their heredity. They can never escape the class into which they are born.
The mission of Webb, Tucker and the students was to tend to the patients’ needs whether it was simple care and feeding, helping the sisters at the mission with administrative tasks or playing games and working puzzles with the children and adults, many of whom suffered from physical conditions such as blindness and club foot as well as mental disabilities. Some were both mentally and physically disabled, Tucker explained.
“Our object was to embody the presence of Christ by offering his love and kindness and by just being present with these people,” said Webb, who has served in India before.
For the most part, the Missionaries of Charity take care of their basic needs such as food and clothing, but the people, especially the children, still long for that human touch, said Tucker.
“One day, several students were just playing with the kids on the street and taking pictures. The children were so happy just to be interacting with the Campbell students it broke your heart, and I wondered just how many times a day these children feel like they are nothing,” Webb said.
Campbell students who participated in the trip are divinity students David Webb, Karie Parkes and David Anderson,junior Antonio Spears, junior Courtney Williamson, sophomore Katherine Bellamy, senior Alexandra Chin, and senior Amanda Morrison. Each student was responsible for raising his or her money for the trip and additional financial assistance was provided by Spring Hill United Methodist Church in the form of a donation. With this money, the students bought toys, clothes and other items for people they helped.
Divinity student Karie Parks said the trip opened her eyes to a world she never knew existed.
“It’s changed my life and the way I want to conduct my ministry,” said Parkes. “Mother Teresa advised people to ‘find their own Calcutta.’ That is what I want to do, look for my own Calcutta closer to home.”
Photo Copy: Campbell students Courtney Williamson, left, and Katherine Bellamy play with street children in Calcutta, India.