THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 60th birthday of Major Archbishop Cardinal Baselios Cleemis of Syro-Malankara Catholic Church last year marked the launch of a slew of charitable activities covering a lot of communities irrespective of caste, religion and creed.
This year, the archbishop is gearing up to celebrate his 61st birthday in a low-key manner on Monday and plans to sustain the charity schemes launched last year and announce a couple of new schemes which would be of great relief to underprivileged families.
A free meal scheme, financial assistance for the homeless and financial assistance for widows were among the schemes launched last year.
Archbishop Baselios Cleemis told The New Indian Express the free meal scheme launched by the Church catered to a lot of people. “We used to serve free noon meal except for Sundays. We had to stall the scheme because of COVID-19. We would be resuming the noon meal programme very soon,” said Baselios Cleemis, who doesn’t like to have huge celebrations.
The Church has provided aid to 1,845 people so far, including Rs 1 lakh for constructing new homes and Rs 50,000 for undertaking maintenance.
“We are flooded with applications from people belonging to all communities. It is a Rs 16-crore scheme,” said Baselios Cleemis. He said efforts are now on to find more beneficiaries for the scheme.
“The initiative has faced a slowdown because of Covid-19. The scheme would be back on track soon,” said Baselios Cleemis. Another initiative rolled out by the Church is the financial assistance for widows.
“The five-year-long scheme would cover 130 widows from financially poor backgrounds. We give them Rs 1,000 every month in financial aid,” he said.
‘Amma Veedu’, an initiaitive to give shelter and care to widows, will be launched soon. “In the initial phase, we would be accommodating 25 widows. The project is coming up at Anchal,” he said.