Published on: August 18, 2014

Dr Rajagopal, Chairman of Pallium India, writes:

I went on a pilgrimage over the weekend of 9 and 10 August, 2014, and visited three temples of compassion, care and love in Northern Kerala. The first was to Anthikkad in Thrissur district, where palliative care is in the heart of the people led by Mr Sreemurugan. The next was in the city of Kannur, where the district consortium of palliative care organizations by name PIK, with the initiative of Mr Vijayan and Mr Sudhas, organized the meeting, and the third in the village by name Orkattiri near Vadakara under the leadership of Mr Kunhikannan. The event was an awareness program for volunteers on end of life care. In each place, I spoke for about 45 minutes to one hour and then followed discussion. I could handle only about one-third of the questions that were written down and handed over. I promised to respond to the rest in our monthly publication, Sahayatra.

What thirst for knowledge! These are volunteers who are already involved in caring for patients in their homes and one common feeling that they shared was that they feel inadequate in supporting the dying people and their families. We parted with the agreement to learn more on the subject together.

Truly, God lives in the hearts of these people.