Rev. Fr. Ramiro Erviti
A Man, A Message and A Mission
When on May 20th, 1986, Fr. Ramiro Erviti met with an untimely death at the age of 56, the one refrain on the lips of thousands of his admirers was:
"He gave and did not count the cost"
Those who mourned his death were students and ex-students, the poor and the rich, the slum dwellers and the bunglow-wallas, the adivasis and the retrenched mill-workers, the learned and the illiterate... They were legion! It was only on his death, did Ahmedabad realize the tremendous impact that this one man had on the city.
Fr. Erviti was born in a little village in far away Spain. As a young man and as a member of the Society of Jesus, he came to India with the one desire to serve the poor and the marginalized here. His major assignment as a priest was in St. Xavier's School, Loyola Hall where as a teacher, he was able to bring out the best from his students: inspiring them, motivating them, challenging them. His classes in Social Studies, Civics and later on in Social Reconstruction held the interest of the student. As one of them still says, "We always looked forward to Fr. Erviti's classes".
His little office was always a hub of activity. With students coming in there at all times: much before school started, during their free periods and staying on till late evening. It was here, that Fr. Erviti tried to relate what he taught in the class-room: sharing with the boys the hard and cruel reality which was the lot of the poor. Many of his students warmed up to his ideas and ventured with him into the slums of Ahmedabad, to visit the sick in the hospitals, to spend time with the leprosy patients in Kagdapith and anything that would bring them in touch with the painful realities outside.
Fr. Erviti was not satisfied with merely these casual visits and so he began organizing his famous motivation camps taking batches of students to Bhadreshwar, Devgadhbaria, Bharuch for three days and even a week at times motivating them to higher things.
Memories of these camps are still fresh in the minds of several of his ex-students who even after 25 or 30 years fondly recall his ‘Khila-ni-ramat’ and other creative exercises which literally gave them messages and values which they would cherish all their lives: to become men for others.
Not many will ever forget the mountaineering camps organized by Fr. Erviti. Hundreds of Loyolaites and youth from the slums and villages were disciplined in the rigours of mountain climbing in Mt. Abu and in expeditions to Hanuman Tibba. Fr. Erviti definitely had a passion for adventure for which scaling the most difficult peaks or trekking the most arduous of paths was of prime importance. Remembering the mountaineering camps conducted by Fr. Erviti, evokes a strong sense of nostalgia among those who participated in them: one can easily recall apart from the tough climbing and treks, the tents and the wonderful campfires, the skits and songs, the camaraderie and the fellowship, the sweet lassi and the hot drinking chocolate and of course, the tales he could tell about the trees and the animals, about the birds and the bees. In short, Fr. Erviti was a modern day Francis of Assissi: in close touch with nature.
However, Fr. Erviti is most known for his love and compassion for the poor and the marginalized. Whenever calamity struck, be it the floods in Broach or in Ahmedabad or the Morvi Dam Burst or Communal Riots in the city of Ahmedabad, Fr. Erviti was always there reaching out the victims… to the most needy. It was in these situations that he not only gave untiringly of himself but he was able to bring out the best in the students and the others who volunteered to serve with him.
In 1973, in the wake of the floods in the River Sabarmati which destroyed several hutments and left thousands homeless, Fr. Erviti was able to bring together a team of young architects; their joint effort saw the birth of Sankalitnagar (on the outskirts of the city of Ahmedabad) which in those early days was a model not only in low-cost housing but also on how people of different faiths could live together in peace and in harmony. However, Fr. Erviti was a restless person. Though fully appreciative of what his students could do for the poor of the city of Ahmedabad and Gujarat, he was aware that the involvement of a student in the service of the poor is often limited. He wanted to do much more and in a more regular manner. It is in this context that he founded St. Xavier's Social Service Society (SXSSS) in 1976. And with it began a new Chapter in the life of Fr. Erviti.
From the time of its inception, SXSSS has always responded to the realities and needs of the slums of the city and the villages of Gujarat, through the four inter-related approaches of Education, Health, Organization and Environment. Fr. Erviti always believed that only a wholistic approach would answer the needs of the poor. As the founder of the Social Service League of Loyola Hall, Fr. Erviti was able to do plenty in small ways but now as the founder of SXSSS, what he wanted to do was to influence policy decisions and public thinking on the plight of the poor. He was able to take SXSSS into the heart of the slums of the city and in extraordinarily creative ways; he was also able to respond to the tribal migrants who came to this city in search of work to the city through the formation of a tribal cooperative based on building skills.
Today, Fr. Erviti is widely regarded as the Father of the NGO movement in this city of Ahmedabad because apart from SXSSS, he was able to inspire several other individuals and other leading NGOs of the city. SXSSS continues with a rich legacy inherited from Fr. Erviti very specially in the areas of human rights, justice, peace and communal harmony both at a daily grass-root involvement and through advocacy.
But alas, ten years was too short a time for a man who had to give so much to the poor: Fr. Erviti was always in a hurry; and his many friends are convinced that he died in a hurry too. A man who gave himself totally for others literally neglected himself. What Fr. Erviti managed to give each one is courage to believe in oneself, a faith to believe in the other, a hope for a more humane society and ultimately an all encompassing love for the poor and the marginalized. Here was a man who had a message to give us and who lived out this message in his mission; truly "A MAN FOR OTHERS".