Sr Anna Maria Sammut's face radiates joy and contentment; one would never suspect that this face has witnessed monstrous atrocities in Pakistan.

The picture she paints is incredibly disturbing: unemployment is high, the country is over-populated and there is a lack of hygiene and medication.

There are many drug addicts. Children roam the streets while their parents have menial jobs. Those as young as eight have to work; they inflate bicycle tyres, sweep shop floors and work in brick factories. Their situation is often desperate.

Sr Sammut is a member of the community of the Sisters of Charity of St Jeanne Antide in Pakistan, which caters for around 200 poor and destitute people. They also have a school for the poor and one for children of drug addicts as well as two dispensaries in the village.

"People are brought in a very bad state: dirty, wearing rags, aggressive and totally mad or out of their mind," Sr Sammut says. These people have been treated atrociously by their relatives who have sometimes chained them up.

The families are too poor to look after their relatives so they get rid of them in order to go to work. They need constant care and depend on the sisters for all their needs. Many of the residents are unsurprisingly sad and feel rejected.

Pakistan is similar to India in that it has a caste system: there are the very rich and the very poor. Sr Sammut adds, however, that "Pakistan is in a far worse state than India: a huge number of people still lack electricity and water. The country spends all its finances on weapons and nuclear arms. There is no money left for social benefits."

Many are under-nourished and many more barely eat. The facts scream horror: many sniff glue in order not to feel hunger. In order to earn some money, the parents sweep the streets. However, they then use the money to buy drugs.

"So desperate is their situation that they use sex as a means of escapism," Sr Sammut adds. The account of suffering is relentless: The life-expectancy in Pakistan is 40 and sick people over this age are habitually left to die.

Sr Sammut, who is 77 years old, jokes that with this mentality, she'd be far beyond help. Her positive attitude in such a dismal situation is admirable. "Life's a gift," she comments in a serene voice.

She has brought an envelope packed with photos. Leafing through them, each one helps rekindle memories, and stories.

Sr Sammut recalls the story of one of the residents, a 10-year-old boy who suffered from horrible epileptic fits. She pulls out a photo of the boy's funeral; his fits led to his early death.

She also recounts another incident, when a woman had gone to her along with her five children, all naked.

"They had spent three days sleeping under a tree as they had nowhere else to go. They had been travelling by train and were exhausted." The woman's husband was in hospital, dying of TB. When the woman asked for financial aid, Sr Sammut couldn't help her as she had run out of money.

Her positive attitude is unnervingly forceful and she forges ahead in the firm belief that they somehow always manage. Miraculously, two hours later, the postman arrived with €460.

The horror stories continue: When a woman who worked to sustain her children failed to give her husband the money she earned from sweeping, he cut her legs off.

To compound matters, there is an agency which steals children. "These children are maimed: their hands are cut off or their arms and legs are twisted.

They are then thrown in the middle of the road, in the sweltering heat, to beg. If the children don't give up the money they collect, they are beaten."

A cultural situation in Pakistan slanted against women does little to help the situation, and girls marry as young as 13.

One woman was so horrified at the thought of raising a girl that she wanted to bury her newborn alive.

"Girls are more expensive because they have to be supplied with a dowry when they are married off."

Another woman once ap-proached Sr Sammut and asked her for some 'advance' money in order to settle her 13-year-old daughter's dowry for her arranged marriage. Because the girl was poor, Sr Sammut foresaw that this would only lead to more problems and refused.

The woman went ahead with the marriage plans. Sometime later her daughter came back covered in wounds: she had been burnt with an iron rod all over her body because she had no dowry.

One of the reasons Sr Sammut needs money is because her helpers are not volunteers and need to be paid. As a missionary, she found it very difficult at first as she had to adapt to a completely new culture.

"What impresses me so much is that we as Europeans are always so nervous - we don't accept life - but the Pakistanis always have a smile on their face. They tell me: 'Sister, relax.' And so I try to," she smiles.

Sr Sammut has been in Pakistan for 27 years. She spent 16 years in Malta helping out in prison and as a school teacher in Tarxien. However, she always had the missions in mind.

"I always wanted to help others less fortunate than me. By chance, the bishop asked us to go to Pakistan," the happy nun smiles.

There, along with other nuns, she takes in anyone who can be helped, as long as space is available. Their work is similar to the nuns of Mother Teresa taking in the poor, the sick, the orphaned, and the dying.

Needless to say, to do this, large sums of money are required every week for food, clothing, medicines, maintenance, wages and bills.

The institutes do not have a permanent income. They live on providence.

Anyone wishing to financially support the sisters in their mission in Pakistan may send a cheque addressed to Sr Carmela Sammut

(For banking purposes, Sr Anna Maria uses the name Carmela) to Sr Sammut, c/o Family Caruana, 27, Triq l-Ibraġġ, Ibraġġ. E-mail agostina_ maria@hotmail.com.