Five News exposes ill-treatment of disabled youngsters at mother teresa's care home
Five News has uncovered serious shortcomings at a care centre run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, it was announced today.
This special investigation by Five's investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre, contains secret filming at the Daya-Dan centre, Mother Teresa's home for the learning disabled,  which is responsible for around 50 disabled children aged six months to 12 years. 

The film reveals:
-       children restrained whilst being fed
-       youngsters tethered by robe to their cots overnight
-       a group of children abandoned on the toilet
-       haphazard care and hygiene & degrading treatment 

After hearing serious complaints from international aid workers, Donal filmed undercover in Calcutta for four days. He worked alongside other international volunteers, Missionary of Charity Sisters and local workers.

The shocking footage reveals that despite receiving millions of pounds in donations every year, there is little evidence of its investment at the centres Donal visited.
While at Daya-Dan Donal filmed several children being tied-up as poorly-trained workers attempted to feed them. There was evidence of low-levels of hygiene, including the head of the unit stirring medicine with her finger. And, in one sequence, a group of six disabled children are left on the toilet, unattended, for over twenty minutes. 

Filming after hours at the Daya-Dan centre Donal found the children tied and tethered by their ankles to their cots. The report shows the distressed children crouched in their cots, with ropes around their ankles.

Martin Gallagher, former Operations Director of MENCAP UK, who appears in the film, said: "My overall impression of the pictures you've shown me from this centre is that the standard of care is shoddy and haphazard. I think abandoning someone on the toilet for that length of time is shoddy practise. This is a threat to their hygiene. It's also a threat to their dignity."

On seeing footage of the children tied to their cots Martin Gallagher added: "As far as I'm concerned it's a breech of their Human Rights."

Five's Donal MacIntrye said: "International aid workers had been approaching me, saying that these Mother Teresa homes were not as good as they should be, and that serious breeches of care were taking place. But I was truly shocked by what I found at the Daya-Dan centre.

There are strategies for looking after disabled children that minimise stressful situations, and, as a result of poor training and lack of resources, staff are resorting to barbaric practises such as tying children up. Unless the Missionaries of Charity, the guardians of Mother Teresa's legacy, improve their standards, they risk damaging not only the health of those in their care but also the reputation of one of the world's most remarkable women."

The Missionaries of Charity said in response: "Our homes continue to be simple, providing innediate and effective service to the poorest of the poor as long as they have no one else to look after them. Physical restraints are used only when absolutely necessary for the safety of the child and for educational purposes. We try to provide all that  is necessary for the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of those under  our care and are committed to continual efforts at improving the quality of care we give them".

They add:"We value constructive criticism and admit that there is always room for improvement. Thank you for bringing to our notice what you consider lapses in the quality of care and hygeine in this home".

Mother Teresa's Legacy - a Special Investigation by Five News - will be shown on Five on Monday 1st August at 5.30pm. 
For further information please contact
Stephanie Faber on 020 7550 5589 or or
Justine Bower on 07801 678 382 or
Michael Murray-Fennell on 07704 921 371