Donal MacIntyre

CALCUTTA, India (CNS) — The Missionaries of Charity denied allegations that they abused residents at a home for children in India.

Their denial follows reports that British television reporter Donal MacIntyre, posing as a volunteer, secretly filmed children being tied to cots at the nuns' "Daya Dan," or Gift of Mercy, home for children in Calcutta, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.

MacIntyre allegedly found children with their hands tied during mealtimes and tied at night to their cots with pieces of cloth. The children reportedly are ages six months to 12 years.

Sister Paula Marie, superior of the home, told UCA News that the allegations come from people who look at the situation "very much from the outside, not understanding the relationship" between the children and their caregivers. "We don't abuse children," she said. "What we do is for the good of the child, for training or safety, and the use of restrictions has been limited."

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On Aug 1st British television carried an investigative piece by Donald McIntyre about the treatment of children in an orphanage run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. He quotes Dr Aroup Chatterjee, a medical doctor in London and the author of Mother Teresa: The Final Verdict, as saying that "the Indian government is "terrified" of her reputation but if similar practices were found in any other home, it would have been shut down."

In brief, the report said that handicapped children were maltreated in the orphanage. No surprise there for anyone who has cared to read what the true story is behind the façade that Mother Teresa carefully built around her mission. She used the misery that is all too evident in Calcutta (and in India in general) to demand charity from all and sundry around the world. What she did with the donations is not clear and is unlikely to ever become clear because she refused to have her books audited. Untold millions of dollars flowed into her coffers. The money was not used to build even one small hospital anywhere. In her homes, it was even forbidden to hand out simple painkillers. She, in the meanwhile, got jetted around to hospitals in the US whenever she was suffering some illness.

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According to the reporter (who pretended to be a volunteer), the Missionaries of Charity keep disabled children tethered to their cots and are unprofessional in providing medical care to their patients. Sister Nirmala responds saying that criticism is welcome but we are alone with the children and no one is helping us.
 
New Delhi (AsiaNews) – In a less than candid operation, perhaps more publicity stunt than anything else, a British journalist denounced the poor training the Sisters of Mother Teresa have in caring for disabled children in one of their Indian homes.

AsiaNews interviewed some of the Missionaries of Charity who explained why, on rare occasions, they have to rely on extreme means. Understaffing is one reason; preventing children from hurting themselves is another.

Journalist Donal Macintyre went undercover in Daya Dan or Gift of Compassion Home where seven nuns are in charge of 59 children with different kinds of physical and mental disabilities, aged six months to 12 years.

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London, Aug. 2: A documentary which alleges that disabled children are being ill-treated at a home in Calcutta run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity was shown on British television last night, with the presenter warning that its contents were "shocking" and that viewers "might find some images distressing".

The investigative journalist, Donal MacIntyre, says in a voiceover that the most disturbing footage he filmed secretly at night at Daya Dan, in Nimtala, was of a child in a cot tethered by its foot. The knots are visible.

The documentary, which was first shown on News Five and then repeated (more than once) on Sky News, shows six children who were apparently left unattended on their toilet seats for 20 minutes. Some children also had their hands tied while they were being fed.

The documentary covers the care of 59 children, aged between six months and 12 years.

MacIntyre briefly quotes a London-based doctor, Aroup Chatterjee, a well-known critic of Mother Teresa, as saying that the Indian government is "terrified" of her reputation but if similar practices were found in any other home, it would have been shut down.

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NEW DELHI: Mother Teresa's charity said yesterday it tied up disabled children at one of its homes in India for their "safety" and for "educational purposes" after a British documentary highlighted the practice. "Physical restraints are used only when absolute necessary for the safety of the child and for educational purposes for limited periods of time," said Sister Christie, spokeswoman for the Missionaries of Charity, the worldwide Roman Catholic order founded by Mother Teresa.

She issued the statement after British television reporter Donal MacIntyre said he clandestinely filmed many of the 59 children at the Daya Dan home in Kolkata tied by their ankles to their beds at night.

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NEW DELHI — A charity founded by Mother Teresa said yesterday disabled children at one of its homes in India were restrained for their own safety, after a British television reporter filmed children tied to their beds.

Britain's Five News, in a programme to be broadcast today, said it had uncovered "serious shortcomings" at a care centre run by the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. It secretly filmed many of the 59 children — aged six months to 12 years — living at the Daya Dan shelter tied by their ankles to their cots at night, restrained while being fed and left for up to 20 minutes on the toilet by their carers.

In a statement, Five News said it began investigating the home after hearing complaints from international aid workers. The global order of nuns said yesterday its charitable homes only tied children when absolutely necessary.

"Physical restraints are used only when absolutely necessary for the safety of the child … for limited periods of time," a Missionaries of Charity statement faxed to Reuters said. "We value constructive criticism and admit that there is always room for improvement."

01 August 2005
Khaleej Times
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/August/subcontinent_August4.xml&section=subcontinent&col=

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Responding to a British TV film showing physically challenged infants tied to beds, the Missionaries of Charity (MoC) says it takes the steps sparingly and only for the child's safety and "educational purposes".

"Physical restraints are used only when absolutely necessary for the safety of the child and for educational purposes for limited periods of time," said Sister Nirmala, superior general of MoC, the order founded by Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa in 1950.

In its programme to be telecast on Monday, Britain's Five News said it had uncovered "serious shortcomings" at a care centre run by MoC in Kolkata.

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