By: Sister Tammy Saberon SSC

Columban Sister Tammy, a regular contributor, is from Molave, Zamboanga del Sur. She was on mission in Hong Kong before going to Myanmar.

More than five years ago, when I had just arrived at Myitkyina from a vacation in the Philippines, Sister Matthew FMM, a nurse, came with a sad face telling me that her patient was unconscious and that he could die soon. She then told me about him.

His name was Paul Zaw Ling, 22 years old. About a year previously his wife had left him and brought with her their two children. He had contracted malaria some years before and was now suffering from it again. The day before, he had dysentery and was running a temperature as high as 40.5°C. No amount of persuasion could move the mother, a widow, to send him to hospital because she was poor and could not afford to pay hospital bills and buy medicines. When I heard this, I was moved with urgency to help this young man live. I thought, surely the medicines wouldn’t cost as much as surgery.

The two of us decided to discuss the matter with Father Yawhan who knew Paul because he had been called to give him the last sacraments the day before. He had given Sister Matthew some money for injections, hoping that Paul’s condition would improve. As we reflected together, we found ourselves in a very helpless situation because there were many cases like his around and if we helped him, more people would come to ask for our help. We wouldn’t be able to do so because we had no funds to respond to health problems in the village. So Sister Matthew and I went home with heavy hearts for not being able to help the young man. He died that same afternoon.

The next day, we went to the house to console Paul’s mother. There we saw the handsome young man laid on the bamboo floor with his few belongings beside him. He looked as if he was sleeping. His wife had been informed of his death but hadn’t come to see him for the last time. Paul was broken-hearted when his wife and children left him. His wife never came back to see him even when he was sick. He had not seen his children for about a year and would never see them again.

Paul’s father had died about ten years previously and his oldest brother had died of malaria as a child. He had a younger sister staying with their mother. His younger brother was expected to arrive at 3:00 pm on the day of the funeral, but that had to take place at 1:00 pm.

Paul was just one of the many, young and old, to die of malaria here. Myitkyina is a particularly bad malaria-infested area. Sister Celine, one of the youngest Columban Sisters, died of cerebral Malaria years ago here. The rainy season is the worst time. Sister Maria, who was assigned here a few years ago, said that on pastoral visits you could see many people sick with malaria in the villages. It was difficult to see them lying there knowing that you couldn’t do anything to relieve their pain or to give them hope for survival. People died of malaria mostly because of poverty.

How many mothers see their children suffer from illness and eventually die just because they are poor! How many in the helping professions find themselves torn to pieces when they want to help but can’t! Sometimes this feeling of helplessness can discouarage us from doing pastoral visits, especially to the sick. Yet, we cannot give up.

You may write Sister Tammy at: St Columban’s Church, Augnan Yeiktha, MYITKYINA, Kachin State, MYANMAR