Daya Mina: birth of a place they can call their own
A tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes laid in a crib between Joseph and Mary, amidst the donkeys, sheep and cattle, as there was ‘simply no room in the inn’ for Him.
Like poverty-stricken outcasts, this birth however heralded the dawn of a religion proclaiming love and compassion for the poorest of the poor, the stigmatised and the ostracised – for those left out in the cold.
"Very precious in the eyes of the Lord": The children of Daya Mina. Pix by Indika Handuwala
More than 1,500 years later in 1964, across the seas from Bethlehem in far-away Sri Lanka, this was the powerful motivator to embrace the abandoned and unwanted, sometimes by their own kith and kin and often by a society that was aloof and indifferent.
Sr. Anastasia Perera
This mission was set off not by a baby boy wrapped in swaddling clothes but a baby girl wrapped in newspaper, abandoned at the gates of the Home for Elders run by the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary (SCJM) in Galle.
This order of Catholic nuns has been inspired by their Founder Rev. Peter Joseph Triest who as the Parish Priest of Lovendegem, a town in Ghent, Belgium’s Flanders area had witnessed the suffering of the poor, destitute and differently-abled after the French Revolution.
With the ‘charism’ or spiritual gift and inspirational purpose of this order which arrived in Sri Lanka back in 1896 being to serve the poor, vulnerable and neglected in society, it had been the Belgian Provincial Mother Elizabeth de la Trinity who set up ‘Supem Uyana’ (The Garden of Love) in Gonapinuwela, Hikkaduwa.
“This was our first residential home for children with intellectual disabilities,” says Sr. Anastasia Perera, who was a fresh-faced young nun just into her vocation at that time. Coincidentally, her maternal aunt, Sr. Damien was the Superior of Supem Uyana.
Smilingly saying that her family was convinced that she would leave her robes quite soon and her peers at the Nugegoda Badminton Club placing bets too that she would leave her vocation, Sr. Anastasia who was a National Badminton Champion, has celebrated her 60th anniversary as a nun, along with the diamond jubilee of Supem Uyana this year.
For Sr. Anastasia, the response to the call to follow Christ was a life she found rich and empowering in spite of many challenges.
The baby wrapped in a newspaper they named Maria, meanwhile, Provincial Mother Elizabeth had seen as confirmation and vindication, that their vocation was to look after with love, abandoned children. It had been around the same time that ‘Prithipura’ had been founded by Dr. Bryan de Kretser, making this home and Supem Uyana, the only residential homes for these children in the country at that time.
And so, an abandoned building set amidst a sprawl of 50 acres, given by the then Bishop of Galle, became home to Supem Uyana, with the produce of the land to be utilised to run it.
The second to be welcomed into the home was five-year-old Jesse, recalls Sr. Anastasia, with a trickle of children being brought to the door regularly.
Supem Uyana: The original building
We meet Sr. Anastasia at ‘Daya Mina’ (Gem of Love) in Embuldeniya, with both parents and children busy as bees, for all their handiwork was going on exhibition and sale that week.
From Supem Uyana, the mission had come to Colombo, with another Belgian nun, Anne-Marie Dhooghe who restless and praying for guidance opened Daya Mina as a day centre for around six young girls and boys with special needs, in an empty garage down Rheinland Place, Kollupitiya.
With the numbers growing in less than a year, Daya Mina moved to a house in Polhengoda after Sr. Anne-Marie clad in saree, astride her scooter, went in search of a suitable place.
“Then, through God’s grace, we got a donation of Rs. 3 million from a German organization and the Embuldeniya location was offered for sale for exactly that price,” says Sr. Anastasia.
Daya Mina, supporting life, social and vocational skills for the differently-abled in an effort to encourage independent living, had found a permanent home.
Patience and talent: Making Christmas candles
Now, the SCJM have four centres – the ‘Meth Mihira’ (Haven of Love) special education centre in Koralawella, Moratuwa being the third and ‘Daya Sevana’ (House of Love) in Kegalle, the fourth.
Opened with aid from Liliane Fonds, an organisation based in the Netherlands, after the tsunami ravaged Sri Lanka in 2004, Meth Mihira is a haven for special children to help them achieve individual goals, while Daya Sevana set up in 2010 is a residential home away from home for young women in Kegalle whose parents cannot support them, where they can live all their lives until death.
As Sr. Anastasia walks through different sections of Daya Mina, greeting each child by name and getting bright smiles from them in return, she says that every child is “very precious” in the eyes of the Lord.
We see much activity – the production of a range of candles in various colours and shapes such as roses including scented bottle-candles; paintings; crafts; mat-making, sewing and more, with the latest being attractive pendants and ornaments from coconut shells. Speech therapy, Zumba dancing, western music and cookery too are part of the routine.
Sr. Anastasia now in her early 80s, was at Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya, as a schoolgirl, then in England as a young nun and served in the General Governing Body of her order for six years from 2000-2006 in Brussels, has a dream for her ‘current and to be’ Sri Lankan proteges.
Explaining with a tinge of sadness that the cut-off age for those under her care at Daya Mina is 30, which sometimes she and her band of dedicated nuns push to 40, she says her “dream” is to set up a residential home in Colombo, with one section for males and another for females.
This is a dire need, which we have heard from many parents, whatever their status, race or religion. “When we die, what will happen to our special children,” is their plaintive cry.
This is the lacuna that Sr. Anastasia is longing to fill as she gazes at the scene of the nativity as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ at midnight on Tuesday (December 24).
A place of their “own” for the differently-abled who do not have room in the inn, where they can live in contentment and dignity until their passing.
| A little goes a long way | |
| In this season of joy over the birth of Christ, please help the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary with your mite. Your donations may be sent to: Account No. 1175491201 at the Commercial Bank, Nugegoda, in the name of Daya Mina. For more information, please contact: 011-2834633 or 077-343-3986. You could also drop by their sales centre at the Daya Mina premises at No. 29, Thalapathpitiya Road, Embuldeniya, to pick up a few candles or ornaments as your Christmas décor. Spare them a thought, for a little goes a long way for them.
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