Social Worker Finds ‘Little Calcuttas’ at Home

Dave Risher couldn’t believe what he heard that afternoon at an orphanage outside Calcutta.

The speaker was Mother Teresa, at a retreat for workers at her missions for the destitute and dying. She told the foreign volunteers there that when they returned home, they should look for the “little Calcuttas� in their own countries.

“We said there was nothing at home this bad,� said Risher, a bearded, heavy-set social worker who lives in Torrance.

After all, to him, the Indian metropolis was “surrealistic.� Snake charmers and fire eaters ply their trades as millions beg for food or money and live on the streets, in caves or in grand but decaying imperial buildings--ghosts of the British rule that ended 40 years ago.

“Before I went, I knew. I’d read the books,� said Risher, who spent October working with destitute people in one of Mother Teresa’s many Calcutta centers. “But the reality of it hits all your senses: the sights, the smells, the noise.�

‘I Cried’

People on the streets offer guns, drugs and their own bodies for sale, he said. Some maim themselves or their children to increase their success at begging. Street gangs, claiming the sidewalks as their territory, prey on the homeless who sleep there.

“It was awful, terrible. I cried,� Risher said. “It was too much seeing people bathe in water they had just urinated in, people lying dead on the street.�

Such things in California? Little Calcuttas?

When he and the handful of other foreigners--an Austrian, a Soviet and an Irishman--protested, Mother Teresa insisted that “the symptoms, the hates and the hurts exist in each of your countries, so look for them,� Risher recalled.

“She believes people are poor because others don’t want to share. They walk away.

“She told us to look for people and help those in society who are not being helped, or who society won’t help.

“I thought about that all the way home.�

8,000 People Helped

Risher said he now sees little Calcuttas when a 14-year-old Mexican girl taps on the window of his office at the Lutheran Social Services agency in Long Beach, where he is one of four social workers who help more than 8,000 people a month get food, clothing and jobs, and cope with alcoholism and drug abuse.

“She comes and says, ‘My mother wants me to find food,’ � Risher said. “Her mother works 7 days a week sewing in a sweatshop. The little girl doesn’t go to school because she cares for five other children who are smaller. She has an old woman’s eyes in a young woman’s face.�

Risher said he sees little Calcuttas in the faces of increasing numbers of homeless people and in the eyes of lonely old people in convalescent homes. “They are waiting for their children to come to see them, looking for love and never finding it,� he said.

“The poverty here may not be as bad, but the emotional pain is just as great.�

Risher, 37, went to India after nearly 80 people helped raise the money by taking part in a 2-weekend bowl-a-thon in Redondo Beach held by the Lutheran Brotherhood’s South Bay branch. The lay group’s president, Jean Meinholtz, said $5,000 of the proceeds went to Risher while an additional $1,000 went to help support a trailer shelter for homeless families at Loving Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gardena.

$2,000 Spent on Trip

Risher said he used $2,000 for the India trip. The remainder is being used to fix up the 13-year-old yellow-and-white van that he uses to collect donated food and clothing from 49 Lutheran churches that support the Long Beach agency where he works. Risher also takes the van on periodic trips to Baja California to distribute food to jails and poor neighborhoods.

“The van carried 26 tons of food this year, and it ruined the brake system and broke the frame.�

In an interview before his Calcutta trip, Risher said he wanted to avoid becoming a “robot social worker� by “tapping into� the spirituality of Mother Teresa--the slight, stooped 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize-winner who has been called a living saint for the care that she gives to lost people.

“The most vivid memory I have of her is seeing her at Mass every morning, in the back, on the floor,� he said. “It is a small, simple chapel, with no pews. Being in her presence, you could feel something special about her. The power she has is the love of Christ around her, like an aura.�

He said Mother Teresa “goes, goes all the time� despite a serious heart ailment. “She looks tired but acts like she has all the energy in the world.�

Risher said there were 240 men and women--�destitute, dying, mentally retarded, handicapped, some with TB�--at a center called Pre Dam, where he worked with the three other foreign volunteers. “I worked with the men, bathing them in the morning, shaving them, giving haircuts--I got pretty good at that--and feeding them.�

A few spoke rudimentary English, Risher said, and “asked me about America, which they knew was a rich place.�

He recalled one 35-year-old who carried cargo. One day, he was knocked down and the 200-pound load of cotton he was carrying fell on him, leaving him paralyzed.

“He lay in the street for a day before anyone helped him,� Risher said. “You could tell he was very strong. Even when he had been in bed for months, he had a physique and his muscles were tremendous. He barely talked. We did therapy and exercise and held him and walked him around. He made great progress and, when he could stand on his own, tears came to his eyes. I was there when he took his first step. Another worker and I walked with him, then let him go.�

Lost 35 Pounds

Risher, who was struck with a parasitic illness and dropped 35 of his 250 pounds, said his faith--and his focus on why he was there--helped him survive in India.

“I was under no illusion that I could help the situation in India,� he said. “I did not come there with that illusion. I came to learn from Mother Teresa and bring that experience back.�

He said the spiritual strains he felt were familiar: “I’ve gone through that before in this work, in Mexico and Long Beach, where there are a lot of poor. I always question why God lets this happen. Mother Teresa has a simple answer. People don’t want to share. God has given us the answer. If we would share, share the love of Christ with everyone else in the world, these problems could be solved.�

At the same time, he is critical of the acceptance of such abject poverty by Indian society and religion, which he said fosters the concept that “this life is illusion; the reward will come later. Now, you do what you can. It is good for the Indian government that people believe this. It prevents revolution.�

Risher said his experience in India has increased his understanding of the people he helps. “I try to be more understanding,� he said. “Every day, I try to identify more with the people I serve, try to walk with them as much as I can.�

‘He Looked Awful’

While Risher coped with his illness as best he could while working in India, he immediately saw a doctor when he returned home.

“When he got off the plane, I knew he was ill,� said his wife, Renee. “He looked awful. I’d never seen him looking so bad.� She said she thought about his safety all the time he was gone. “I was afraid he’d get killed for his backpack.�

Indeed, Risher lost his backpack, which contained several rolls of exposed film, but not to a murderer. A uniformed airport employee in Thailand made off with it. He lost the slides he intended to use for church talks on his trip.

Risher said the month in Calcutta--with its immersion in poverty, its assault on his senses, the complete faith of Mother Teresa and his bout with illness--�taught me to be strong and not be afraid to find a mission and do it.�