By Mary Lackie

Two nuns left this week for Africa and India, but the work they began with their Perry Homes neighbors will continue.

In February, two Medical Missionary Sisters, Sister Pauline Downing and Sister Joan Barina, moved into a small apartment near the Perry Homes housing project. They worked full-time at Holy Family Hospital and spent their free time getting to know the neighbors.

Although there are more than 10,000 people living in the project and nearby homes, there are no doctors in the area. Sister Pauline said, “There seems to be a great need for medical care with so many working mothers here, and so many older people on welfare. They can’t afford to take a day off of work to go down to Grady.”

Two years ago a program for retarded and handicapped children was started in a Perry Homes apartment by the Passionist seminarians. The apartment was leased from the Atlanta Housing Authority and staffed by teachers and aides sponsored by EOA. In June, a health clinic opened in the same apartment. Miss Lucille Bankhead, R.N., organized a volunteer staff of Negro and white doctors, nurses, and the nuns.

Most of the equipment for the clinic was donated by the widow of Dr. Richard Hackney. His former secretary, Mrs. Inez Jones, also works in the clinic which is open to residents of the area every Tuesday night from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. There is no charge for the services.

The clinic has the approval of the Fulton County Health department and the cooperation of the Rockdale Health Center. Sister Pauline said, “The mothers appreciate it more than anything else. We have provided inoculations for their children, emergency care and minor check-ups. A woman brought in her 8-month-old daughter who couldn’t walk. We were able to refer her to a clinic where she could get help.”

Teen-age aides who assisted the staff this summer were trained to keep records, arrange referrals and take temperatures. Rene Jackson, an Archer high school student said, “I think it’s been good to help out here. I want to be a nurse when I grow up.”

“In everything they said, our neighbors were so warmhearted and genuine. We had kids in the apartment all the time. One girl invited us to go to church with her and we did,” said Sister Joan.

The nuns have left for different assignments, but the apartment will have a new resident. Father Richard Leary, C.P., said, “I intend to move in and take over where they started. We need an anchor to post in the neighborhood. We hope to use the clinic apartment for remedial and art programs and need more volunteer workers.”

The programs are sponsored by St. Paul of the Cross parish, the priest said. “We are just getting to know the people and their problems and they are just getting to know us. There is an awful aching for God here, and it is our prayer that by our presence and work, their human condition may be relieved and their hope ignited.”

Father Leary asked that volunteers interested in helping with the programs in the area call him at 794-8022 for further information.