The Good Samaritan initiative of a church group in Kozhencherry to mobilise medical aid for the poor turned out to be a big hit at the century-old Maramon Convention venue.
If you are lucky, you will be able to grab a full mid-day meal packet, large enough for a couple attending the religious retreat, at just ₹10. It all began 11 years ago by the St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church at Kozhencherry at the initiative and guidance of the 101-year old Metropolitan Emeritus, Philipose Mar Chrysostum.
Mar Chrysostum proposed supplying quality food packets to the faithful attending the Maramon Convention at a nominal price of ₹10, instead of making it free. That was the genesis of Maramon Convention Food and Medical Aid Project (MCFMAP) 11 years ago.
The St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church parish, with a membership of as many as 1,850 families, constituted a MCFMAP committee to undertake the task and the project was launched by Mar Chrysostum himself.
And now, people waiting to collect their meals packet is a daily morning scene at the Maramon Convention venue.
Fr. George Jacob, committee chairman and Fr. Varghese Philip, parish vicar, told The Hindu that they make as many as 5,000 mid-day meal packets on a daily basis and the whole lot used to be sold out in an hour itself.
Round-the-clock work
The church has opened a kitchen on its sprawling grounds and parish members are busy packing meals in plantain leaves round-the-clock at the church auditorium.
“We spend not less than ₹50 on every meals packet with the money collected from the parish members. Each family attached to the parish sets aside money every month for the meals scheme,” says Fr. Jacob.
The annual contribution of parish members comes around ₹18 lakh and the committee collects ₹2.5 lakh by way of selling 25,000 meals packets during the week-long Maramon Convention, says Libu Malayil, committee convener.
A panel of doctors scrutinise and finalise the list of beneficiary patients, mostly terminally ill cancer and heart patients, from the applications received from five panchayats in and around Kozhencherry. The financial aid is being distributed by April first week.
In the beginning, the committee donated houses to the homeless and the medial aid scheme has been in force for seven years, says Fr. Jacob.
