By Ben Hochhausen
Forty years ago, my wife and I were introduced at a neighbourhood gathering to Fr Joseph Murray Abraham SJ, a Canadian Jesuit stationed in Kurseong, India. He was on one of his cross-Canada trips talking about his work with the poor in what is now known as the Darjeeling Jesuit Province and seeking financial support for projects.
Fr Abraham’s first major project was to carve out a hillside in the foothills of the Himalayas and build a school funded by Canadian donors for fifteen hundred students whose parents could not afford to pay for their children’s education.
He later converted Woodcot, an abandoned building that had been the summer residence of Belgian Jesuits who had preceded the Canadians, into a home for about seventy disadvantaged and abandoned children. It also became the headquarters of Saint Alphonsus Social and Agricultural Centre (SASAC), which developed projects to employ the underprivileged.
Before my first of three visits to SASAC in 2002, with my daughter and son-in-law, a building had been constructed from concrete blocks made by the people themselves, to house a chicken and egg farm (later converted to a more profitable mushroom farm). A piggery with several breeding sows was in operation. Shoats were offered on credit, to be paid for when they reached market size. SASAC also provided over 50 small concrete block houses for those most in need, and people with disabilities, all built by SASAC labour.
SASAC also developed at a new site one thousand feet higher in elevation than Woodcot, which later became known as SOJASI. Fr Abraham built a seven thousand square-foot training centre at SASAC II and start a dairy farm at SASAC I. Our family donated funds to build the Training Centre to purchase twenty-five New Zealand born Holstein cows, to construct several small concrete block houses, and purchase a van for the hospital at Jesu Ashram.
On two subsequent trips to India, we visited SASAC, Hayden Hall, Jesu Ashram, and other Jesuit projects. All the missions have been effective, but they need regular donations to maintain present levels of service. Your help is needed. There is joy in giving!
