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Joseph John (minister)

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Joseph John (Reverend) (* around 1925 ?; † about 20 years ago ?), Reverend of the Church of South India engaged in founding a Rural Life Center in the former Madras state in India to help poor and casteless people.

Biography

Joseph John was a young pastor in Katpadi in Vellore district in Tamil Nadu in India. He encountered Mahatma Gandhi who called upon the young pastor, as a Christian, to start a venture as a memorial to the Anglican priest, C.F. Andrews, known as Deena bandu, “friend of the poor”, one of Gandhi´s closest followers.[1] Joseph John was inspired and left the ministry in 1948 to serve the poor and casteless in a remote area in the former Madras state without outside support. He believed in people's ability to help themselves if someone gave them initial support. Joseph John acquired 500 hectares of land in Palasamudram Mandal in Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh State, and called the location Deenabandupuram (place of the friend of the poor), as there were several locations of the same tenor created in India.

The land was considered uncultivable. He wanted to show the farmers that a better life was possible. John moved there with his first wife Ranji (Aaron) John.[2][3]. They had three children: Karuna, Prem Chandra and Hannah. Later as a widower he married his second wife Padma and had children with her.[4].

Work

The valley in which Joseph John's Deenabanduparum Rural Life Center is located is known as the “Home of the Friends of the Poor”. He settled landless people on empty land provided by the Indian government. Since 1955 his ideas were supported by the organisation World Neighbors. Money was not given to people but borrowed by them from a revolving loan fund. Those who were helped repaid their loans. Not only were they establishing their self respect but they knew that their repayments would help others.

A new dimension to the work of Joseph John in the Deenabanduparum Rural Life Center was attributed by his two sons Karuna John and Dr. Prem Chander, graduates of the Christian Medical College Vellore.

Karuna John, graduated in agriculture in California, directed the center's agricultural extension program, urging local farmers to use irrigation, fertilizers, better seed and a variety of crops. With support of World Neighbors villagers were trained in skills as carpentry, metal work and printing.

Dr. Prem Chander John and his wife Dr. Hari John (Hari Kumari Paliah)[5] – both physicians – directed the medical phase of the center, which offers low-cost medical care and an extensive family planning program reaching out to villages within a 30-mile radius.[6] Joseph John and his family were involved in establishing a comprehensive community health project emphasizing sanitation, nutrition, increased food production and family planning. In 1975 their clinic had 25 beds and some mobile units.

Dr. Prem Chander John also had a Master of Science degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he specialized in leprosy, “India´s biggest disease”. To combat this, the John family created the Nava Jeevan (New Life) project for lepers to bring them back into society as contributing, productive members. This is one area in which Joseph John found Rotarians to be very helpful providing manpower for a total public health survey of the area.[7] They started to resettle lepers from Madras in rural areas. These families live in houses provided by the Rural Life Center, also providing them with seed and water for farming while their medical treatment is in progress. The leprosy rehabilitation center the Deenabanduparum Rural Life Center enabled the affected people to earn their own living.

In 1965-1973 Joseph John engaged in an agricultural project for irrigation for small farmers in Tamilnadu with support of Lüder Lüers and Bread for the World of the German Protestant church.[8]

References

  1. ^ Drs. Hari and Prem Chandran John: We Learn Through Our Failures: the Evolution of a Community Based Programme in Deenabandhu. World Council of Churches. In: CONTACT 82, Christian Medical Commission, Geneva, December 1984, p.1. Name of 1st wife, also: Ranjitham Retrieved 27 March 2022
  2. ^ Drs. Hari and Prem Chandran John: We Learn Through Our Failures: the Evolution of a Community Based Programme in Deenabandhu. World Council of Churches. In: CONTACT 82, Christian Medical Commission, Geneva, December 1984, p.1. Name of 1st wife, also: Ranjitham Retrieved 27 March 2022
  3. ^ Name of 1st wife Retrieved 2 May 2022
  4. ^ Personal knowledge
  5. ^ Drs. Hari and Prem Chandran John: We Learn Through Our Failures: the Evolution of a Community Based Programme in Deenabandhu. World Council of Churches. In: CONTACT 82, Christian Medical Commission, Geneva, December 1984, p.1. Retrieved 27 March 2022
  6. ^ Robert A. Bassi: World Neighbours. In: The Rotarian. An International Magazine December/ 1975, p. 27. Retrieved 27 March 2022
  7. ^ Robert A. Bassi: World Neighbours. In: The Rotarian. An International Magazine December/ 1975, p. 24-27. Retrieved 27 March 2022
  8. ^ Down memory lane. THE TAMILNAD CHRISTIAN COUNCIL ECONOMIC LIFE COMMMITTEE. Backdrop. Retrieved 27 March 2022
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