St. Aloysius College in Mangalore started the Aloysian Boys’ Home in 1980 as a memorial of its centenary year. It was meant as a rehabilitation home for delinquents and destitute found on the street. The Sisters of Charity agreed to work with us as partners of this project, so that we could look after the children with love and care.
The Home was a unique project and a showpiece for the Jesuits as well as for the Sisters. It also showed how two Religious Congregations can work together smoothly and fruitfully for a common cause, as Fr. General Arturo Sosa reminds us that “the Society of Jesus today stresses cooperation with others as a necessary dimension of how we conceive and practice the apostolate.”
Circumstances beyond our control, made us close this project. Regulations, recently drawn up by the Government, prescribe that children found on the streets should not be kept here, but be sent to their home districts so that they grow up in their own culture.
But the project was not to be closed completely. It was given a new form. The premises of the Home would be used for the higher education of girls from remote villages, who, though they have the capacity to study beyond high school, do not have the facilities to do so. The Home is now run with the help of Sisters of another Congregation – the Regina Apostolorum (SRA) Sisters. The Home has also a new name – ‘Aloysian Girls Hostel’. We are sure that the girls will be transformed from being village girls and will do well in life, and be a light for the others who still sit in darkness.
Leo D’Souza, SJ
Mangalore
