“By the time we left I was in no doubt as to how lucky most Irish people are. We have everything we need and quite a few things that we don’t”
- Ciara Davin, volunteer 2004.

Ciara Davin, a nurse, recalls her experience of visiting St Teresa’s Home for elderly and abandoned people in Oberá, Argentina. This is an edited version of an article written for the St Stephen’s Green Loreto School Annual in 2004.

When an old friend invited me on to do some voluntary work in Argentina this summer I said no problem. I spent the run-up to the holiday doing extra shifts in Casualty in St Vincent’s Hospital and gave little thought to what we would be doing in Argentina
We arrived to work in Hogar Santa Teresita (St Teresa’s Home), one of two Cheshire Homes founded by Limerickman and missionary priest Fr Liam Hayes.

I thought I had seen suffering at home but what I saw in Argentina was on a different scale altogether. As Fr Hayes pointed out, being born into extreme poverty as well as being totally disabled mentally and physically is painful enough, but the greatest pain of all is having no one in the world to love you. The children we met were totally dependent on those around them to care for them, they could do nothing for themselves and yet had been abandoned on the sides of roads, in fields and in hospitals.

We spent our time at the home playing with the children, feeding them and talking to the staff who care for them, and also doing some fundraising among our friends and contacts at home. The residents of St Teresa’s Home all need intensive physiotherapy, occupational therapy and proper medical assessment in order to reach their full potential. But there is no local government support available. Fr Hayes travels to Ireland and the UK every year to raise enough money to keep the homes running. Irish money goes a very long way in Argentina. But donations of surplus beds and wheelchairs from Irish hospitals are always welcome too.

While we were in Oberá, a young 24 year old boy called Marcello died. He had been one of the newer residents of the home having arrived very malnourished and fighting a losing battle. He had very bad pressure sores on his body and died within a few months of his arrival – from an infection his body was too weak to fight. Such sad stories are commonplace. Shortly after leaving Oberá, we got a phone call to say that another resident, Jorge, had also died. Since we knew Jorge a lot better we were all shocked by the news. We knew he had gone into hospital but didn’t think he was very ill. He had pneumonia and was too weak to fight the infection. Unfortunately, the drugs needed to treat a lot of illnesses are very expensive and can’t always be afforded. It is only through fundraising and donations that this situation can change.

By the time we left I was in no doubt as to how lucky most Irish people are. We have everything we need and quite a few things that we don’t. There are many millions of people who have so much less than us, people who will never get out of the vicious circle of poverty, people who will live and die on the side of roads in their country.

I suppose it is up to us, as individuals and as a community, to do something. Tackling large-scale problems like corruption is vital in a country like Argentina. But I also admire the work that is done at a local level – the work of Fr Hayes and his staff, tackling problems faced on a daily basis by the community. But helping those who so desperately need to be helped right now is also essential. Apart from the good that they do for individual people, homes such as St Teresa’s Home show there is an alternative to corruption and selfishness. It is the love that can penetrate to the heart of a community, inspiring people and regenerating hope.