Galdys Staines back to her job to fulfill Graham's dream

Baripada, Jun 16 (UNI) Gladys Staines, widow of the Australian missionary late Graham Stuart Staines, has returned to Orissa to look after the management of the Leprosy Home here.

Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home(MLH) Chairman Dr Subhankar Ghosh told reporters that Gladys would attend an important general body meeting of the MLH Association scheduled to be held here on June 19.

The meeting will discuss inter alia the implementation of Graham's dream project -- a big hospital where facilities such as reconstructive surgery to cure physical deformities and physio therapy treatment would be made available, Dr Ghosh said.

The hospital, when commissioned, would help alleviate the miseries of the leprosy-afflicted persons of Mayurbhanj and other sick persons from neighbouring Jharkhand and West Bengal.

The MLH meeting would also make a review of the activities of the Association and seek expertise of Gladys on how to bolster up its activities, Dr Ghosh said.

Earlier, on her arrival at the Mission House at Baripada, Gladys met Medical Superintendent Dr Daniga Salem and other staff of the Graham Staines Memorial hospital located in the mission compound and discussed about its functioning.

The hospital constructed by the MLH (Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home) Association was opened in 2004 in memory of the late Graham Staines.

Graham Staines Queensland, Australia, came here in 1965 to stay and lived there till a frenzied mob killed him and his two sons - Philip and Timothy on January 22, 1999, at Monoharpur in Orissa's Keonjhar district.

While welcoming Gladys Staines here on Thursday, the inmates of the Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home recalled Graham's services for thirty-five years (1965-1999) for the leprosy afflicted persons and their rehabilitation.

Gladys is currently staying with her daughter Esther at Townsville in Australia where she (Esther) has been admitted into a medical college to fulfill her dream of being a doctor, sources added.

Gladys will stay at her Mission compound residence at Baripada till the end of this month, sources said.

UNI XC-DP KK RA ND1810