The parish of Koilamati is situated in the state of Assam in Northeast India. The 20,000 or so inhabitants belong to the ethnic minorities, above all to the Karbi tribe, and live in small village settlements in straw-thatched bamboo huts.
The majority of the population are small peasant farmers or scrape a living by traditional woodcarving or selling homemade textiles. Life is hard, and most families can only manage a meal of rice and a few vegetables twice a day. Child mortality is high and diseases such as malaria are widespread.
Since 2009 the parish has been under the care of the Carmelite Fathers, three of whom are working here at present. There are Catholics living in 16 of the 50 villages within the parish area, and the priests have to visit these villages, not only on Sundays and feast days, but also on weekdays, administering the sacraments, visiting the sick and dying and generally supporting the people. But the journeys are long and dangerous, for this is a mountainous region, covered with rainforest, and there is a real danger of encountering elephants, tigers, rhinos and other wild beasts. Added to this, the roads are very poor and many of the villages lie high up in the hills.
The Fathers were in urgent need of our help, since they had no suitable vehicles, a fact that was making their work so much harder. Back then they had just two ancient motorcycles for their pastoral work, both of which were completely worn out and damaged through years of use. After repeated repairs, they had finally reached the limit of their usefulness.
Father Xavier Jayaraj, the provincial superior of the Carmelite Fathers, turned to us for help, and thanks to your generous support of 1,090 Euros, we were able to fund the purchase of two new motorcycles for these priests. Father Xavier has written to thank us: «Only a powerful motorcycle can cope with these difficult tracks in order to reach the people whom God has entrusted to their pastoral care. Thank you for your love and your understanding for our difficulties, and thank you for meeting our request. The apostolate of the Fathers in Koilami has been greatly simplified as a result, and now they can reach the villages much more quickly and spend more time and energy serving the people. May God bless you all for your love and concern for us!»
