That was truly sad news of the death of our co-Novice and friend Paul Macwan.
Besides
the nearly 4 years in Vinayalaya with him, I was privileged to be in
that team of 4 Jesuits viz. Pierre Ceyrac, John Bingham, Paul Macwan and
myself who were assigned to work in the Refugee Camp of Phanat Nikhom
i.e. from October 1980 till March 1981. Both of us have been given
permission for 6 months only. This camp was a sort of transit camp
where most of the 18,000 or so refugees had been accepted for migration
to third countries and had to be cared for until such time that they got
official immigration documents. Most of them were educated Cambodians
who had been in the Pol Pot camps and had escaped to Thailand before and
after the defeat of the Khmer Rouge.
JRS had
not yet been started when we started our Mission. We went there on
behalf of Caritas International and were working under umbrella of the
organisation of the Thailand Bishops known as COERR (Catholic Office of
Emergency Relief and Refugees). Paul did a wonderful job there and was
immediately given the responsibility by the UNHCR for constructing
houses for the Refugees.
If it was not for Br.
Paul, who gave me tremendous support and encouragement, I would have not
done the little that I could do there. He had a very close contact
with people. In the Thai town of Phanat Nikhom where we were staying,
he got into contact with people. Very soon he was conducting evening
classes in English for some older persons (a couple of them teachers).
In due course he got me involved. He would take classes for 2 of them
and I would take classes for the other 2. Then, because of his close
contact with the Refugees, he realised that many of the Refugees, when
they were accepted by 3rd countries were leaving with very little. He
approached me and we both decided to do something. I got into contact
with the Mission Procurators of Germany and Switzerland and very soon
started getting financial support from them. I had told Paul that I
would help raise the funds but he had to plan what to do with them.
As
soon as we had the funds, he approached two of the Thai ladies whom we
were teaching English and they agreed to drive us to Bangkok on a Saturday
where we would go to the shopping centre and buy clothes, bags,
suitcases and other things needed by the Refugees.etc.. We would then
take these to the camps and Paul would be the one who would give them to
those who were the next on the list for flying out to either
France/USA/Australia or some other country.
With
these few paragraphs I just want to say "THANK YOU PAUL! Thank you for
having made those 6 months in Phanat Nikhom so special for me. May God
bless you abundantly for what you have done for so many of us."
All the best Agnelo. Thank you for keeping me informed.
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