Sister Theresa Crasta is the only woman religious from India who was rescued by the Indian government from Afghanistan in August after
the Taliban captured Kabul. Crasta belongs to the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa, or Sisters of Maria Bambina, an Italian congregation that was involved in educating special needs children in Afghanistan.
Crasta comes from Bela village under the Mangalore Diocese in Kerala on the border of Karnataka state in south western India. The 49-year-old nun went to Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, in 2018 after her silver jubilee in the congregation. She served in the only special needs school of its kind in Afghanistan set up by men and women major superior groups in Italy.
After her rescue and two-week quarantine, she visited her family home in Bela and very recently has returned to her Holy Angels Convent, also known as Belvedere, in the Mangalore Diocese to await reassignment.
Crasta shared with Global Sisters Report her experiences of working with special needs children in Afghanistan as well as her rescue from the war-stricken country.
“To be honest, I really did not want to come back. Even when my father died in May this year, I opted not to come. But after the sudden fall of Kabul to the Taliban, there was no option but to leave. I thank everyone who had helped me get out of that country”.
“I landed in Kabul November 1, 2018. No one had forced me to go there. I knew the situation in Afghanistan and the dangers involved before I chose to go there.