New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust India

Maggie Sister is an inspirational woman who has devoted much of the past 17 years to helping the sick and poor in India. Maggie is a founder Trustee and Patron of “Friends of Australia and a Trustee of New Hope Trust India”.
She lives and works from idyllic Broome Western Australia, but her life’s work takes her far from that setting. The grandmother of three is known as Maggie sister, a name given to her by the people with whom she works in the Indian regions of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh.

Maggie sister’s involvement with the New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust began when she answered a lifelong call to travel to the country that had held so much mystery for her since childhood. Maggie was awed by the commitment and the work being done in isolated tribal areas by the New Hope Trust and their determination to train local Tribal people for fieldwork.

Maggie was the first white person seen by many remote villages. Since then, overcoming many personal obstacles including an operation to remove a cancerous lung in 1995, she has returned to the New Hope community at her own cost every year, to carry out valuable work in the field and tutoring.
When in Australia her commitment continues and she works hard at raising funds. Maggie's courage, determination, faultless work ethic and sense of humour make her a popular guest speaker. Maggie sister has been invited as a guest speaker to various service organizations and National and International Conferences. Maggie equally enjoys speaking to small groups and schools who want to know more about her life and the New Hope Trust.

In recognition of the tireless work with the New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust she has been awarded the Order of Australia in 2000; a Rotary Paul Harris Fellowship in 1996; and Citizen of the Year award in 1999. Whenever asked Maggie sister is very quick to tell you that she is just a volunteer and accepts the awards on behalf of the staff of New Hope.
Maggie sister is fond of saying “I am but the hinge on the door between the East and the West”.

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Eliazar T. Rose Director of New Hope India recently said: of the Australian links built over the past 12 years,

“I feel strongly about the whole relationship of working side by side with a solid team from a developed country”

His favourite words are from Chilean Poet, Gabriela Mistral, below are some of Eliazar's favorite sayings:

• Many of the things we need can wait, the Child cannot
• Right now is the time their bones are being formed, their blood is being made and his sense are being developed
• To them we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow’ their name is 'Today'

Eliazar and his wife Ruth will be in Western Australia as part of the publicity for the release of the film “Nurse Maggie” on SBS on the 12th October 2006. The film is about New Hope and the friendship between Eliazar, Ruth, and Maggie sister, and the story of Maggie sister’s journey through a sometimes difficult life. The film “Nurse Maggie” was produced by Australian film makers Rebecca and Jonathon Heath, who went to India with Maggie sister in January 2005. The idea came to them after reading the book “Sister Sister”.
Eliazar and Ruth come from very humble backgrounds. Both their parents suffered from Leprosy and have experienced the horror of being ostracized. Those with Leprosy were forced to live in colonies, which in the 1950’s was horrendous and without real anti Leprosy drugs. Eliazar was painfully aware of the shame and rejection suffered by his parents and from an early age he resolved to fight both the disease and its stigma.
While still a teenager he trained as a Boilermaker at the Institute of Indian Technology but never took up the trade, preferring to work in a Leprosy colony gaining wide experience in medical and laboratory techniques and gaining registration as a Medical Practitioner in the field of Leprosy.
In 1985, he and three like minded young Indians founded the New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust to fight Leprosy, poverty, literacy and many other challenges facing the poorest state of Orissa in India. Eliazar chose to base New Hope Trust in the state of Orissa in a Tribal area known as the Koroput District.
In 2000 Eliazar was awarded the prestigious Indian Prabhakarji Award by the Gandhi Memorial Leprosy Foundation in New Delhi. In 2005 he received the internationally acclaimed American ‘Damien Dutton Society Award’ for service to the leprosy affected communities over the last 25 years. The Gandhi Memorial Foundation appointed him to their Board this year. Eliazar and Ruth have both been recognized by Rotary International with the Paul Harris Fellowship award.

Eliazar Rose is an accomplished speaker and ambassador for many causes. He is respected by all and loved by thousands of Leprosy patients and children on the Eastern sea board of India. After the Tsunami hit south India on Boxing Day 2004, Eliazar again stretched out his hand to help the widows and orphans left by this terrible disaster.
The one point made by all those who meet Eliazar is his strength and passion for the underprivileged and the quiet dignity and humbleness he shows.

New Hope Rural Leprosy Trust India