From repentance to compassion

- Nowadays-Preeti Shah

- In 1997, a Christian organization gave Thomas half an acre of land. He built a house with basic amenities on it and named it 'New Arch Mission of India'.

'Yes, repent, the abundant spring has descended from heaven. The sinner becomes virtuous by immersing himself in it. ' This line is reminiscent of the life of King Thomas. Thomas was born in a poor family in Vaniyambadi, Tamil Nadu on the 19th. About 200 km from this small town. Her father came to Bangalore with his family for a job. It was difficult to run the house from the father's income. Due to financial difficulties and his father's busy schedule, Thomas got into bad company at an early age. After the third standard, the study was skipped. Stolen money from father's pocket at the behest of friends. At first he felt fear and hesitation, but with success he started stealing again and again. Gradually, he became addicted to alcohol and marijuana, as well as gambling on a daily basis.

Gambling habits led him to steal regularly. He now began stealing from someone else's home. Relatives stopped inviting him to their home. One day he sold his mother's mangalsutra. The father beat him and kicked him out of the house, saying that he had died for us today. Thomas had no place to stay. He had hoped that his father's anger would subside so he could find him and take him home, but that did not happen. Thomas moved from Bangalore to Chennai. She found shelter there, but stole a lamp and sold it. One day, after being badly beaten, he ran away and came to the railway station, where for the first time he had an idea about his life. He thought what a miserable life he was living. Leaving all these trappings, he went to his parents and apologized and fell asleep on the bench with the idea of ​​living a new life. When he woke up, it was midnight and the police were standing in front with sticks in their hands. He was taken to the prison, where there were about three hundred prisoners. There he had a vision of a life worse than hell. Stayed in prison for thirty days, fell ill and then prayed to God remembering that I would be released from this prison, then work honestly for the rest of my life. As soon as the parents got the news of Thomas, they came to Chennai from Bangalore and took him with them.

King Thomas was born again. He got a driving license from his mother for one thousand rupees and started driving a rickshaw and worked as a bodyguard for his union leader. While driving a rickshaw, when he saw hungry beggars and abandoned people on the road, he remembered his past. He constantly wondered how these people could be helped. One day he saw a beggar counting the last hours of his life and could not bear it, so he took him home in a rickshaw. He wondered how Mother Teresa could do such a thing. He prayed to God that if he got some strength, he would also like to do something of service for such people.

With that in mind, he founded Home of Hope. He started taking care of two people in the garage of his house. In 1914, a Christian organization gave Thomas half an acre of land. He built a house with basic amenities on it and named it 'New Arch Mission of India'. In twenty-four years Thomas has saved more than nineteen thousand persons. So far, she has had five marriages. About nine thousand people who were with him have received a glorious and peaceful death. He has an ambulance and works for twenty five people. Thomas King, a father of three daughters, also has a father's place in the hearts of the 40 people who live there. They are sad that these people are still living like prisoners. They have demanded the government to provide them with basic facilities, identity through Aadhaar card and voting rights by wearing a chain weighing 21 kg in July this year. Thomas says he now has a residence. Don't treat them like beggars. Receiving many prestigious awards, Thomas King is known as 'Auto King' and that is what makes him his best award.

Mangalatai's smiling page

In India, when HIV -When AIDS started, when there was not enough understanding among the people, he started an awareness campaign in Solapur district by giving information about AIDS.

One hand extended to help the afflicted is more special than the two joined hands to pray. This line of Swami Vivekananda became the life mantra of Mangal Arun Shah. The books that his mother read to Mangal Shah from an early age were influenced by the lives and thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, Mother Teresa and Baba Amte. Mangal Arun Shah is known as Mangalatai today. Born in Solapur district of Maharashtra, Mangalatai got married at the age of seventeen. When other women of the family were engaged in worship, they took special pleasure in helping people in need instead of performing such rituals. They contacted the government hospital to diagnose the disabled, pregnant women, HIV. Helping positive sex workers, leprosy patients etc. Delivering food to the needy patient at home and delivering it to the hospital.

He launched an awareness campaign in Solapur district by giving information about AIDS. For the past three-and-a-half decades, she has been working to raise awareness among sex workers, but her ministry took shape in 2001. Is. In March 2001, while Mangalatai and her daughter Dimple were explaining AIDS awareness to sex workers in Pandharpur, they came to know that a two-and-a-half-year-old girl had been left near a cattle pen in a nearby village. As soon as Mangalatai got the news, they reached there. Investigators found out that the two sisters and their parents had died of AIDS.

Both the girls are HIV positive. Being positive, the family was not ready to keep him. Eventually Mangalatai and her daughter Dimple decided to take the two girls home and put them in an orphanage. When he inquired about this and found out that there was no such institution in the whole of Maharashtra, not only in Solapur district, Mangaltai decided to keep the girls there with some hesitation of the family. They are infected with HIV. Began working on the care and rehabilitation of positive children. For this work he established Prabha-Hira Pratishthan in Pandharpur in 2006 and started Palvi project under it. The word palvi in ​​Marathi means to give new leaves to the plant.

He did not get any help or cooperation from the villagers. Many people even told him to put these girls in the forest. Even so, you have to die sooner or later, right? Amidst such mentality of the society, economic hardship, lack of safe space and scarce medical resources, Mangaltai continued to work. Initially there was only enough space for them to hold eight children, but the number of children was increasing every year. He started giving accurate information to allay the fears of the people towards this disease. One day the principal of the college visited the institute.

Impressed, he wrote an article in a local letter. Then many citizens helped. Land was purchased and a building was constructed for the school from a fund of one crore. Gyanmandir School has six classrooms. Six teachers and four staff work there. They have their own medical unit, which can treat five to seven children at a time. One doctor, two nurses, three caretakers and two counselors are constantly present. Today, taking care of 12 children, 8-year-old Mangaltai says, "I am the mother of all these." It is extremely painful for a child to die in their womb, as they constantly try to keep the children fighting against the disease happy and joyful.

They want to make the school more modern. Mangaltai's dream is to establish a 'Matruvan' in the future, in which five hundred children can live and get a foothold by getting education. Today, she is proud and happy that her children work in fields like teacher, fashion designer, dairy farming, garment factory, mobile repairing.