An Indian nun working in Ukraine has managed to rescue people including medical students from India and other parts of the world to safer destinations.
According to resources, on March 2 evening, about 1500 people were rescued to the border of Slovakia under the leadership of Sister Liji Payyambally, a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint Marc.
When the students who boarded the train at their own risk with the permission of their parents set off for their journey targeting Uzhhorod National University (UzhNU), a medical institution in Ukraine, Sister Liji took the necessary precautions to talk to Rohach Oleksandr Yanovych, acting vice-rector of scientific and pedagogical affairs and international relations at UzhNU.
Help desk workers of the World Malayalee Federation (WMF) were with Sister Liji and her team for all the help at UzhNU. The Malayalee people are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in south India. They are predominantly native speakers of the Malayalam language.
The WMF is an organization with an active presence in 162 countries around the world.
Thousands of Malayalee students were fleeing Ukraine as victims of the war between Russia and Ukraine unexpectedly, including thousands of Indian students and others.
It was when Sister Lija, who hails from Angamaly, a municipality in south India’s Kerala state, reached the border after walking three to four days from different parts of Ukraine after waiting for hours in a queue which was long for kilometers and could not cross the border.
Sister Liji, who understood the pain of the needy students and people, quickly sent Ukrainian nuns and priests with vehicles to get these students/people to another safer place from the border of Poland.
A group of young people who slept in a school for two nights in the extreme cold had arranged unbelievable accommodation, reception, and food under the leadership of some priests and nuns working in Ukraine.
A long line of students from Kyiv, Lviv and Kharkiv, led by Sister Jiji, fled to the borders of Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Hundreds of students who were in need and first responders were given shelter in the buildings which were part of the chapel, a prayer hall.
Two other Indian (Malayali) nuns and 18 Ukrainian nuns in that convent worked hard to provide food and water and to prepare a room with a heating system for rest.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Saint Mark Convent in Ukraine together with the Expatriate Apostolic Organization based on the Changanassery-Pala formations and the WMF which has an active presence in 162 countries and his team brought several group students and others to the border.
Sister Liji, who sought help from her Ukrainian friends to cross the border of three countries, helped students cross the border by self-driving the convocation vehicle during emergencies.
The Ukrainian citizenship given to Sister Liji, who has been serving in Ukraine for more than 20 years as a sign of respect by the Ukraine Government, has been very useful in this situation.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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