India's Mary Pauline Chinnappan is being informed and inspired during her time at the Coady International Institute. (Richard MacKenzie photo)

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Coady International Institute participant Mary Pauline Chinnappan works with some of the most oppressed groups of people in her native country of India.
      And while the work is hard, it also gives her a great deal of satisfaction knowing she has dedicated her career to helping those in need.
      “I’m proud to be working for my people,” she said.
      Chinnappan is a program coordinator with Community Care Trust (CCT). The organization works a lot with the Dalit population in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
      The Dalit have traditionally been regarded as “lower class” and treated as such within their country’s borders, she explained, and it’s her and her organization’s job to help them achieve equal status and maintain economic independence.
      Chinnappan said the task is made tougher by the fact many are also Christians which can add to their oppression.
      “So they’re doubly oppressed,” she said.
      Her specific duties include working with Dalit widows and helping them overcome, “social evils and giving them economic support so they integrate into the mainstream society.”
      Along the same lines, she heads an educational sponsorship program for students who have lost one, or both, parents.
      “I conduct regular training programs in vocational guidance and motivation for the students during the summer,” she said.
      The CCT’s efforts have been paying off, Chinnappan explained, as over the last decade more than 500 Dalit children have been educated through the CCT and almost 300 widows have been integrated into mainstream society. The integration has been aided by the 50 houses constructed for widows and the fact that 50 received loans to help them establish dairy farms.
      “Our mission is to be committed to the principles of equality and justice by recognizing the marginalized among the rural communities and helping them to change the present to achieve social and economical empowerment,” Chinnappan said. “This commitment is expressed through our range of initiatives in health care, education and community development.”
      At the Coady since August, Chinnappan says she is finding more than just knowledge to take back. She said her already strong motivation to work for those in need is being added to by the inspirational friends and classmates she has met.
      “I’m ready to go and implement all of this into my organization,” she said in an excited tone.
      The Catholic Women’s League Bursary recipient, Chinnappan expressed a healthful thank you to the two men who helped her come to the Coady. Her parish priest, Reverend Father Benjamin Chinnappan (no relation) and CCT director Reverend Father Devon Roy, were both instrumental, she said, and for that she’ll be forever grateful.
      This is her first time in Canada, and she said she is enjoying Antigonish and the Canadian people. She was particular touched by a recent outing she was part of to a seniors’ home where the residents served her and the other visitors.
      “They didn’t want to sit,” she said. “They were so helpful… the hospitality here is very good.”
      A trip to the coast line also struck a chord with Chinnappan who noted the difference between the waters here and her home.
     “It was very calm here,” she said. “Ours is very harsh.”