By Robert R. Schwarz
As two searching pilgrims, Tom and Gheeta Chitta nine years ago stepped off their jumbo jet at O'Hare International Airport, cringed a bit at the radical climate change from their hometown in India, and headed for the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights. Their mission—which they were starting from scratch—was to pitch a base camp from where they could be reaching back to help the "rural poor" in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Besides repeated prayers, their hope lay only in having learned that an Arlington Heights married couple once adopted a three-month-old boy from an adoption agency in India . Now they were about to meet the parents of this child, Gail and Al Walton.
Momentum for their base camp picked up amazingly fast. The "kindness of strangers” first came with Katie McCambridge, who provided the Chittas with living quarters in her condominium for two months. After that, several other families, perceiving the mission zeal of Tom and Gheeta, shared their homes with them. The Waltons gave them an office, and Gail Walton donated her full-time services as executive secretary. Soon, the Chittas had their base camp for a fledgling not-for-profit organization called Foundation for Children in Need (FCN).
But the milestone for FCN, Tom said in this interview, was when Fr. Bill Zavaski, pastor of St. James Catholic Church there, offered them a parish-owned home. “Fr. Bill was a blessing in our lives," Tom said. “He changed everything for us. ". And now came an annual FCN "thanks giving” banquet, sponsored by St. James and emceed by the foundation's future board secretary, Brian Reynolds, a musician who plays his drums as fervently as he promotes FCN today.
Next came eight years of the Chittas criss-crossing America by automobile and jet, annually averaging 20,000 miles to add sponsors and bring their FCN message to more than 300 Catholic parishes. "I don't know of two harder working people,” Reynolds said. “Tom is not able to slow down. He has only one speed: 'faster ' . "
Nowadays, Tom, 56, and his 50-year-old physician wife, Gheeta, provide leadership for an organization that brings critical aid to almost 5,000 Indian children, students, and the elderly. They spend six months each year at their home in Porumamilla , a town of 30,000 people in the continent's southeast, about 400 kilometers from the city of Hyderabad. There, one sees the fruits of the Chitta’s seemingly indefatigable labors and of the loyalties of thousands of American donors and volunteers. Here is where 2,200 children and college students receive aid, where another 2,000 non-sponsored students annually receive dictionaries and notebooks, and where care is given to more than 500 individuals afflicted with deafness, blindness, lameness, and physical deformities. (You just might occasionally see the Chittas at mass in St. James.)
FCN school is spread over eight acres surrounded by mostly flat farmland of sugarcane, lentils, sunflowers, peanuts, and—if water is available—rice. Many of the farmers here are unskilled day laborers who, working in summer (March through May) with temperatures of 90 to 110 degrees F. , earn 150 to 200 Rupees daily, or U.S. $3 to $4.
Porumamilla is encircled by approximately 200 villages, all within a 20-mile radius of the FCN operation; each is populated by 20 to 50 families. Most people are Hindus but, Tom said during our interview, there is "a good-sized Moslem population, with whom we have an amicable relationship." The local language is Telugu, the official tongue of Andhra Pradesh and is spoken by the third largest number of Indians. Its vocabulary has been somewhat shaped by the Sanskrit and Prakrits tongues.
Water comes from hand-pumped "tube" wells in the villages; it is stored in tanks from which people tap it and then carry home. Homes do not have running water. Although typhoid, tuberculosis, pneumonia, and Hepatitis A exist, none is endemic, Gheeta explained. "Infant mortality is about two to five per cent,” she said. Tom added that “mosquitoes are a big problem. “So is malnutrition. In a recent newsletter FCN, stated that "most of the people in the villages do not eat balanced food. The health and sanitation conditions are very poor. "
FCN has separate hostels for 90 boys and girls in grades one through ten. The students are brought in from villages and provided with education, food, clothing, and medical care. They return home on holidays. Another 250 children daily walk one to three miles from home to attend school and, guided by FCN staff, are given disbursement checks to deposit in their bank accounts. All students attend classes 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a 45-minute lunch break. They have a six-week summer vacation. FCN also provides free food, clothing, and medical care for 40 elderly at its St. Xavier's Home for the Aged.
Because many older children and college age students have to stay at home to look after their younger siblings and because child labor abuses are a serious problem in the region, FCN staff and social workers must encourage parents to have their children educated. Asked to relate "success" stories of his students, Tom paused, then confidently replied: "The success story is when the student graduates and is able stand on his own two feet.”
One such story is about Bramhaiah Chintakunta, a college history major from a poverty-stricken family whose father died when he was age four, forcing his mother to work in the fields. "I am so grateful for a college education upon which to build the dreams of my life, " he stated. Another success is Parameswari Palle , a college freshman studying engineering. "I now have a bright future because of FCN,” she said. And there is Bharath Moyela , an eleventh grader born with a protruding spinal membrane, who related : " My mother is an unskilled laborer who is looking for work each day. It was very sad to see my mom struggling to take care of my medical needs and then to send my sister and me to school. God heard our prayers and my days are bright now just because of someone in America [i.e., Fr. Bill Zavaski, pastor of St. James] who is helping me through sponsorship. "
Though FCN staffs 3l people and two nurses in India (there is no paid full time staff in America), its annual fundraising disbursements of four per cent and administration costs of three per cent (according to its 2009-20l0 financial report) are obviously to be envied – if not to be sought — by most not-for-profit organizations. Reynolds, in an interview, explained that the Chittas take only asmall stipend for themselves. “Everything is for the kids," he added. Also, as a FCN factsheet points out, dollars go ten times further in India than in America. For example, $75 will buy a bicycle for a social worker, $50 a month of work from a social worker, $240 for a year of sponsorship of a child, student, or a senior, and $6,000 will build a classroom. (Sponsorship and other information about FCN can be had from their website: www.fcn-usa.org or by writing FCN, P.O. Box 1247, Arlington Heights, Il, 60006-1247).
Tom sees FCN as unique: "It has been built up on the sacrifice of many peoples' time, talent, and prayers,” he said. “We are a very personable organization which keeps in timely touch with our sponsors. We keep a good link between our children and sponsors by having them exchange letters. “Sponsors are also encouraged to take educational tours to FCN in India and visit their sponsored child or student and family. One such sponsor, a St. James member, and his sponsored child, now in the fourth grade, have been exchanging letters for four years. In her last letter, Mounika Kalluri, gave a full report of her studies, adding: "I am safe here. Hope you are also safe by the grace of God. "
Tom's parents were both primary school teachers and were from what he labeled "lower middle class.” He has been a Catholic from birth; his father was a Hindu convert. Tom obtained a Master's Degree in pastoral theology and counseling from Loyola University in Chicago. Gheeta obtained her medical degree (with a family practice specialty) from St. John's Medical College in Bangalore, India. Her father was a military office, her mother a homemaker.
Tom and Gheeta met in India while both were engaged in Catholic parish ministries in Kadapa. Both have been immersed in Catholicism all their lives; critical help for launching their mission, however, also came from two non-Catholics, Gail and Al Walton.
For recreation, the Chittas read a variety of books and favor Italian food. They rarely see a movie and turn the TV channel only to news. Tom's most difficult adjustment to this region? Without hesitating, he simply uttered, “cold weather.” His most loved prayer is the widely-known one of St. Francis. As for scripture, he loves Matthew 25:40: "Whatever you did for one of these least of my brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
Husband and wife have been inspired by the work of Mother Teresa, especially Gheeta, who met this likely saint of the future when Gheeta was l7. "I see something special in you,” Mother Teresa told her. "You little girl are going to be a doctor and help the needy."
Years later with her medical degree in hand, Gheeta told her husband: “And when a saint tells you to do something, you do it."
