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We Are Called to Help the
Poor
 Sacred
Heart School was recently visited by two missionaries from
India. Tom Chitta and Dr. Geetha Yeruva, both with the Foundation
for Children in Need, were in the Kansas City area last week.
The Director of Religious Education at Sacred Heart, Trish
Miller, helped arrange for the pair to visit students at the
school.
Tom explained to the 4th and 5th graders about the great
importance of helping the children in the small villages in
India. He used a map of India and a map of the world to help
the students see where he worked. Sacred Heart’s students
were very interested in the geography of the area and the
wildlife found there. The students were very concerned when
learning about the lack of education and basic services that
other children in the world were experiencing.
Dr. Geetha Yeruva was soft-spoken, but her
message was loud and clear, we are called to care for the
poor of the world. She told the children about the medical
care she offered and the problems
that many children experience because of a lack of care. She
explained to them that her mission was not just to administer
care but to educate families. As she explained, she would
tell the children what they needed to do to stay healthy and
well, such as drink clean water, eat a varied diet, etc. She
would then instruct the children she treated to go out and
tell other people what they learned. In this way, she explained,
the children were teaching the rest of the villagers.
Geetha’s story of meeting Mother Teresa produced a
number of awed responses. Geetha explained that she met Mother
Teresa when she was just 17. Mother Teresa told her to spend
her life helping the poor. Geetha is now devoting her life
to the poor in India, even though she could easily make lots
of money as a doctor almost anywhere else in the world.
The inspirational messages that both Tom and Geetha delivered
to the children caused Mrs. Burbach’s 5th graders to
decide to donate money they had collected last year. Tom was
touched by the gesture, because the money had been collected
in a jar marked “money for the poor” and was solely
comprised of money the students had brought from their own
allowances and earnings.
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