Dushanbe (AsiaNews/UCAN) – They bring food to those who are house-bound, help the disabled by doing, among other things, house cleaning, and pray with those who wish to pray. They are the Sisters of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity who are helping about a hundred elderly and ill people in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

In a Muslim country whose Catholic community consists of 250 people, the four sisters visit those in need three times a week, regardless of their faith. They also run a soup kitchen for the poor.

"The sisters are everything for me. My wife and I are absolutely alone and nobody comes to see and talk with us, except for them," said Yuri Vorobkin, a 67-year-old former mountain rescue official who lost his legs. "Some days, I sit in front of my window waiting for them for hours."

A member of the Russian Orthodox Church, Mr Vorobkin had his legs amputated above the knees six years ago after doctors failed to diagnose gangrene caused by exposure to severe cold. Like many of his compatriots he is an ethnic Russian.

He receives a pension of 25 somoni (US$ 8) a month, which is inadequate to live on. The nuns bring him and his wife, Anna, medicine and rice and pray with them.

Sister Mauris remembers when the nuns, who arrived in 1991, started visiting elderly people soon after they opened their soup kitchen.

"Some of our visitors couldn't come to eat in our house," she said, so the nuns began taking food to them. "Then we started to serve them in their houses."

"Most of them need food and medicine, but sometimes we have to give them a shower and clean their house if they can't do it by themselves," Sister Lamola, who is from India, said.

One such coupe is Galina Sherstneva and Genady Sinikaev, both 65-years-old. Sinikaev walks with great difficulty and his wife is paraplegic.

When the sisters came their two-room apartment was littered with empty bottles, rags and dirty boxes. "First we had to exterminate the bedbugs and only after that dealt with cleaning their house," Sister Mauris said.

"You can't even imagine how much we appreciate the work of the sisters. Do you know how horrible it is to stay in a bed full of bedbugs when you can't do anything because of your disability?" Sherstneva said. "The sisters help us live as human beings."

Sister Lamola regrets that she cannot visit elderly folk only two or three times a week, because on other days all four of them are busy running their soup kitchen.

"We want to help all of the disabled old people, but we don't have enough time to do it," she said.