Inside a two-story building within the crowded Bakshi Nagar area of Jammu and Kash-mir state, 35-year-old Emma-nuel Appan is preparing break-fast for aged and abandoned charity home residents in his care. Wearing a T-shirt and with a rosary around his neck, the young Catholic layman hands out cups of tea. It has been more than a year since Appan volunteered to work at the Little Teresa Home for the elderly and destitute managed by a charity called “Friends of Birds of the Air.” This charity movement, began operating some 25 years ago in southern Kerala state and has since spread to most other states. The Little Teresa Home opened three years ago. It provides food, shelter and medical care as well as emotional support to residents, who are mostly aged between 70-80.
“I choose this life for me and I am in love with it.” “God has made me a multi-tasked person,” he says light-heartedly. Fr Boby John of Jammu-Srina-gar Diocese, who heads the Little Teresa Home, praised the selfless efforts of volunteers such as Appan.
