Wake Forest students spend holidays volunteering in ‘City of Joy’
In 1994, a Wake Forest University student dreamed of meeting Mother Teresa and working among her Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India. So she did, traveling alone to the City of Joy and spending an entire summer volunteering in children’s homes and homes for the disabled. Her experience was the foundation for Wake Forest’s City of Joy Scholars Program, now in its seventh year.
Following in her footsteps, this year 11 students will travel to Calcutta on the day after Christmas to volunteer in homes for the destitute run by the religious order founded by the late Mother Teresa. For two weeks, Wake Forest students will feed disabled adults, bathe abandoned children and comfort the dying. They will return to Wake Forest on Jan. 15, in time for the start of spring semester.
The students will work at Prem Dan, a home for the physically and mentally disabled; Shishu Bhavan, a home for sick and abandoned children; and Kalighat, a haven for the dying destitute and Mother Teresa’s first facility. They will also spend time at Nabo Jiban, a home run by the Brothers of Charity, which provides care for tuberculosis patients.
John Bradley, a senior who went on the trip last year, and Father Jude De Angelo, a priest who is the Catholic campus minister at Wake Forest, will lead the group. They will stay at the YMCA Chowringhee, in Calcutta.
“This trip is such a moving, powerful experience that I wanted to be a part of that tradition again,” says Bradley, who first learned of the trip in high school, when a hometown friend and Wake Forest student who participated in the program shared his story with the local paper. The friend’s experience was so moving that it helped bring Bradley to Wake Forest.
“There were several opportunities that made me decide on Wake Forest,” he says. “But the City of Joy program was definitely one of the reasons I came here.”
This year, students will bring baby clothes packed among their own limited belongings to distribute in Mother Teresa’s homes. In past years, student volunteers have brought a variety of presents including yo-yos, soap and disposable razors.
At Prem Dan, the home for the mentally and physically disabled, students will practice massage therapy on the residents, a technique they learned this fall from Wake Forest Assistant Professor of Theater, Cynthia Gendrich.
Gendrich’s lessons were the subject of one of several preparatory meetings the group has held since first learning of their acceptance in early spring. They have tapped several other university resources to help prepare for the trip.
Ananda Mitra, associate professor of communication and native of India, has educated the group on Indian culture; John Earle, sociology professor, has led discussions on death and dying; and faculty at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have informed them about leprosy and other skin diseases. Teambuilding activities have also been a major focus of the group’s preparations.
Selected from nearly 60 applicants, the students were chosen based on reflective essays explaining why they wanted to go and their expectations of the trip. Bradley was selected as a student leader by the program’s coordinators.
The program is scheduled for Christmas break each year to compensate for long-term volunteers who leave Calcutta during the holidays.
Categories: Experiential Learning, University Announcements
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