(born the 30th of October 1911 in Poznań) – Polish medicine doctor, missionary, graduate of the Department of Medicine of the University of Poznań in 1934. She finished the course in tropical medicine in Hamburg and Liverpool. Worked in the years 1951-1994 in leprosy treatment centre in Baluba by the Lake Victoria in Uganda, and in the years 1951-1983 she was the head doctor. At first, small centre led by Irish sisters of St. Francis order has become under her charge a modern treatment and training centre. In this centre, apart from trainings for medicine doctors, doctor Błeńska initiated and organized the courses of care takers for people with leprosy (Leprosy Assistants Training Courses). Her many years of work meant, that she was called “Mother of the Leprous”, and the native people called her “Dokta”. In 1993 she came back to Poland and settled in Poznań. She was AK (Polish Home Army during World War II) soldier, member of the Council of Humanitarian Aid Foundation Redemptoris Missio.

(selected excerpts from interview)

WHO IS SHE?

„Here I am at home. You now – I see not just that, what other people see. I see my weakness and that I succeeded sometimes in being good” 

Be good for other human being

I think that it is important to be good to people, to all people. Since as we ponder on it for a while, even in the so-called bad people, there is always something good, some sparks of goodness squashed by given circumstance or situations. (…) When such a discovery is made, then such person can be either loved or liked. I encountered goodness everywhere, and I know that people can be good to others.

Do not harm do not cause pain – this is most important. It is so easy to hurt someone, and when you do not do it anymore, it’s for the better, that person feels that already. In every situation you can be good, you can comfort someone.

Let’s not nurse feelings of resentment

In my opinion we nurse resentment too much. Something bad has happened, someone said this or that… People go over and over thinking about it, about these sad things: he did this, he did that. Life has got to be reworked somehow, so that there would be as little pain as possible.

All that is bad, should be thrown away! And do nurture that, what is good. One can, when one is trying hard and God lets it happen, remember only that, what is good. Then, such attitude radiates onto the whole life. As Zagłoba used to say: “Sadness should not be fed, they should starve away.” (…)

One should have ideas

We should have our own ideas. (…) Having ideas perhaps makes life easier. Man without ideas – busy just with his own work, by his own profession, by earning money – cannot be happy. He shall not cope well with adversities. He shall not buy happiness and peace for himself. Peace is inside of us.

Enjoying life

There are so many occasions which one can enjoy, and people usually eat their hearts out thinking: well, this too, could be done, or maybe that as well, instead of rejoicing with what there is. I think that if we only rejoiced with all that goodness that is around us, which belongs to us, then, we would have been much happier.

Love

People say that it’s a feeling, which is reflected by actions. Love is always good, it is something wonderful, it is always radiant. Love gives happiness, irrespective of whether it is happy or unhappy…

– Unhappy love also gives happiness?

– It gives pain, but also moments of joy, all the same.