A Dream Realised
A Dream Realised
By Sister Anne Carbon
Beginnings
Ever since graduating from college with a degree in nursing, I have felt an attraction to working in the field of mental health. In those early years of professional life I never envisioned how this dream would be realised. After some years of working as a nurse in the Philippines, I felt called to enter the Columban Sisters and was eventually missioned to Peru in South America. There, having studied Spanish, I began working in a mental health institute in the city of Lima. But I did not feel that my dream was yet totally fulfilled.
Sister Anne with some patients.
Mission to Ayacucho
Then our Congregation in Peru made a decision that opened up a whole new world to me. We decided to open a new mission high up in the Andes at a place called Vinchos, 3,000 metres above sea level and a ten-hour bus ride from Lima.
Vinchos is a small village located in the Province of Ayacucho. The centre of operations of the "Shining Path" terrorist movement, who spent 20 years trying to overthrow the government by violent means, was located here. It is now a relatively peaceful place, but still in our day to day meeting with the people we hear stories of how much they suffered during that time when loved ones were killed or never heard from again. They still carry within themselves the scars of that violence and fear.
The Road to Wholeness
Two years ago, the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation of Peru, which was set up to look into this whole dark and violent period, publicly presented their findings. They highly recommended that reparations be paid to the victims, and they highlighted the need to bring together the different dimensions of life: the physical, psychological and spiritual in seeking wholeness for all who had suffered.
No Mental Health Centre
In spite of being the most terrorised area of Peru, unfortunately Ayacucho does not have a mental health centre to care for the vast number of mentally ill people roaming the streets and the countryside. Nor is there even one psychiatrist available to help this vast array of suffering people. When I settled into this new reality, I made contact with the Archdiocesan Commission on health in trying to promote the importance of mental health work in the province. With what resources we had, we organised ourselves to do something to help solve the problem.
First Steps
For the past few years we have been inviting a psychiatrist from Lima to come each month to Ayacucho to diagnose and treat the patients. He gives his services free but we pay for his airfare to and from Lima. When we see how the people are benefiting from this service, we find ourselves driven even more to overcome whatever may stand in the way getting help for the people who so badly need it. When I began my work in this little corner of the Lord’s vineyard I used to visit 25 patients a week. Now we have more than 2,000. This would be an impossible task were it not for the help of 10 local nurses who donate many hours of their time to help with the work. We educate the families. This involves workshops and home visitation. It gives me great satisfaction when families express their gratitude and happiness at seeing their loved ones recuperating. You can imagine our joy when we see chronic schizophrenic patients starting to talk to the psychiatrist and sharing what is going on in them.
Sabina
One of our patients is named Sabina. She makes her home on the streets. Nobody knows if she has a family, how old she is, or where she is from. Being aggressive and suspicious, people were afraid to go near her. Aside from her mental condition she suffers from a serious physical problem that makes it difficult for her to move around. She usually sits outside the Cathedral or near a gas station where she sweeps up the dust for a coin. We made contact with her and eventually invited her to a place where she could have a bath. In that way our friendship began. She received a monthly anti-psychotic injection and gradually improved. Thanks to the Peruvian American Medical Society she was able to have the necessary operation and is finally living in a home for the aged run by a local congregation. When I visit her she gives me a big smile and has begun to share with me about herself and her life. What a privilege it is for me to be entrusted with the for so long unspoken story of a deeply wounded woman.
Sister Anne with Sabina.
"The work is God’s, not yours..."
Sabina is just one of a long list of people who endure with courage in the face of untold pain and misery. Little did I think how the tiny seed planted by God - my original vague desire to work with the mentally ill - would grow and enrich my life. The words of gratitude spoken by grateful families, or the warm smile of Sabina, are for me treasured gifts. During my early days as a Columban Sister, I remember being inspired by the words of our co-founder Fr John Blowick, "The work is God’s, not yours. Forward, full steam ahead!" This gave me the courage to set out on this missionary journey, and so trusting that this is truly God’s work I will move "full steam ahead" but in the Peruvian way.