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It had been the dream of the sisters to come to the “North” once we were settled in India. For them, “North” always symbolized the “Mission” land and everyone desired to spread the Good News where there were not many Christians and where Jesus Christ was not known. Like St. Dominic who cherished his desire to go to the” Cumans” every sister of the Region kept her desire enkindled in her heart.
Dhulkot is a small prosperous village situated in the district of Burhanpur about 45 Km away from Khandwa. The village is populated mainly by Scheduled Caste and Tribal. Most of the families are living below the poverty line. It’s a thickly populated village with about 5000 population. About 70 percent of the population are farmers. “Sarpanch “is the head of the village. Nimmadi is the spoken language among the SC. Bilali is spoken by Tribal. They live in clusters and are interested to keep up their own traditions, culture, beliefs, and language.
The first thing that the sisters set out to do in Dhulkot was to learn about the people, their culture, traditions, taboos, and their needs. So they started to visit the families.
After much hard work, the construction of the building was completed and blessed on 31st January 1988.
In 1987, with the collaboration of Catholic Relief Services, the Mother and Child Health (MCH) program was launched with 200 beneficiaries. Awareness camps to the mothers were a salient feature of the program. Few women were prepared as health workers and animators to help the sisters.
Realizing the urgent need to take care of the health of the people, the sisters opened a small clinic. As the number of patients increased and more complicated cases started to come, it was necessary to have a proper place with the essential facilities. On 8th Sept 1988, the foundation stone was laid for Ashirvad Dispensary and blessed on 1990 June 21st.
At present patients come from near and far villages. Once a week doctor's visit is arranged for people to have better treatment and safety of the center.
Since the government was not giving proper education to children, many students were coming for tuition to us. we were also giving nonformal education to many children under the tree of our compound. Seeing the great need to have quality education Bp. Abraham Viruthukulangara along with sisters took initiative to begin a school on July 5th, 1995. The initial schooling for two years was in the garage of the Parish and later Diocese built the school and it was shifted to the present place. At present we have around 600 students studying in our school in spite of the present pandemic. 25% of students of each class are privileged to get free education from the Right to Education Program. Sisters still continue to visit houses, giving coaching classes for the weaker students. Many of our ex-students have become doctors, teachers, nurses and advocates, and army personals.
Sisters continued their village visits and realized the need to help the children of the interior villages. With the vision of helping the children of the faraway villages in 2007, the sisters began to take care of six girls in the name of Ashirwad Hostel. For three years sisters took care of the students and later in 2010, the Diocese took over the hostel. The hostel was shifted from the community to the first floor of the dispensary and then in 2017, it was shifted to the new building. The new facility is for 100 girls. Though we had been taking only students of our school, this year we began to take high school students studying in a Government school.
Social Work: In the past years of social work in the surrounding village has brought a lot of changes among women and farmers. At present too we continue this service by forming and monitoring the SHGs and being available to them. Many of our former groups are maintaining the Midday Meal Program of government schools. They also receive many government projects and loans to improve their income.
In 1984 the seed was sown in the heart of the village of Dhulkot. It was watered, manured, cared and loved by many of our sisters along with the Khandwa Diocese. Now this seed has become a big tree and produces fruits for others. The main development has taken place in the field of education, social work, and health care. More transportation facilities are enabling the people to have more connections to the towns and sending children for their higher education. At present 95 percentage people and children are having their documents like Ration card, Samagra I.D, Bank account, Caste Certificate, etc. As a whole, every Dominican Sister of the Presentation can be proud to cherish the memories of this mission.
Ashirwad community Dhulkot is the first community in North. During these 30 years, God has blessed us abundantly. God’s protection we experience in many ways. The dedicated and wholehearted service of the sisters has certainly brought out a change in the lives of the villagers. We are grateful to each one of you for bringing life to the mission of Dhulkot. Each one of you has touched and your mission has grown. Continue to work together for the growth of the mission.
Ashirwad health centre
