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| St. Joseph's Primary School library, run by Benebikira Sisters |
Before I came to Rwanda, I thought of Catholic nuns
and brothers as people who spend all day at church praying quietly
but my viewpoint has done a complete 180 since I got here. Catholic congregations seem to be the most organized,
motivated, and capable local forces in existence in East Africa. These professionals use their network and
connections to complete the much needed projects for their communities.
Maranyundo Girls School is run by the Benebikira
Sisters, along with 21 other schools. They
have a special interest in women’s and children’s education and health. Among their projects, these 400 women also
run six health centers and hold countless administrative positions in
hospitals. They financed, built and maintain a women’s dormitory at the
National University of Rwanda to support more female enrollment in higher
education. The sisters are doctors,
nurses, entrepreneurs, public health professionals, teachers, administrators,
headmistresses…the list goes on and on. According
to their website, their “charisma is to evangelize by example…[their]
spirituality is based on the Jesuit model of contemplation in action, seeing
God in all things.”
It may seem they might try to proselytize to the
students, but I truly believe they want the girls to aspire to be doctors and
engineers and shape Rwanda for the better.
It almost seems to be (I’m worried I might create waves here though)
that women take vows as both a personal and professional decision. They have goals to advance their country and
can be real forces in their communities.
It allows them to develop ambitions noticeably further than they could without
the church’s resources.
Until I went to Uganda I thought the Benebikira
Sisters were unique in this objective. We
stayed at Kisubi Brothers University College, run by the Kisubi Brothers and
these brothers are just as impressive! We
were given tours of the university and a neighboring, notable secondary school
for boys, St. Mary's College Kisubi. The secondary school was
extraordinary: over 100 years old and one of the best in Uganda. Both institutions had technology, library and
intellectual resources I thought would be unavailable in the country. They had many nuns studying at the university
to become trained in mental health for the hospitals where they worked. And almost every time we were introduced to another
brother, he told us which American university he had attended.
Many not only studied in the United States, but also
maintained side projects to continue helping their community in Uganda. Our main contact was Brother John who studied
in Ohio and had book drives every weekend to collect textbooks (which as anyone
who has been to college knows, are unreasonably expensive) for schools in
Uganda. Now he has two store rooms full
of diverse books available to any school who needs them! For the Benebikira Sisters, Sister Juvenal,
the headmistress of Maranyundo, and Sister Augusta, the CFO of the
congregation, have both studied in Boston.
Those are the
ones I know, I’m sure there are more. Of
course, higher education is not inexpensive, but they have a goal for themselves
and their communities and find ways to fulfill it. If they have a vision, they
get it done. I respect them so much.
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