Jyoti Thottam wins Christopher Award for the book "Sisters of Mokama”

Brooklyn, N.Y.-based author Jyoti Thottam, has been honored with a Christopher Award for her book, "Sisters of Mokama: The Pioneering Women Who Brought Hope and Healing to India,” (Viking/Penguin Random House). It is one of 12 books for adults and young people as the Christopher Awards program marks its 74th year.

The author’s mother was trained to be a nurse at Nazareth Hospital in Bihar, India founded in 1947 by six pioneering nuns from Kentucky—the “Sisters of Mokama.” The true story is about bravery and radical women who ignored societal constraints. The hospital “was run almost entirely by women, who insisted on giving the highest possible standard of care to everyone who walked through its doors, regardless of caste or religion,” according to the book’s website.

“Thottam draws upon twenty years’ worth of research to tell this inspiring story for the first time. She brings to life the hopes, struggles, and accomplishments of these ordinary women—both American and Indian—who succeeded against the odds during the tumult and trauma of the years after World War II and Partition. Pain and loss were everywhere for the women of that time, but the collapse of the old orders provided the women of Nazareth Hospital with an opening—a chance to create for themselves lives that would never have been possible otherwise.”

Jyoti Thottam is a senior Opinion editor at The New York Times. Prior to joining the Times, she was a reporter, editor and foreign correspondent. From 2008 to 2012, she was Time’s South Asia Bureau Chief in New Delhi, where she wrote numerous cover stories, including award-winning articles about the Ganges River and the Mumbai terrorist attacks. Born in India, she grew up in Texas and graduated from Yale and Columbia.

Christopher Awards were also given to creators of 10 TV/Cable shows and feature films.

The Awards celebrate authors, and illustrators as well as writers, producers and directors whose work “affirms the highest values of the human spirit” and reflects the Christopher motto, “It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” Christopher Awards were also given to the creators of 10 TV/Cable shows and feature films.

Tony Rossi, The Christophers’ Director of Communications, said, “The stories we’re honoring acknowledge that the struggles we endure in life coexist with beauty and hope when we work together, despite our differences, to add love and healing to our world.”

The Christophers, a nonprofit founded in 1945 by Maryknoll Father James Keller, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition of service to God and humanity. The ancient Chinese proverb—“It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness”— guides its publishing, radio, and awards programs. More information about The Christophers is available at www.christophers.org.