Sr Yvonne Mwalula Mwila, Director of the Bauleni Special Needs Project in Lusaka, Zambia. Photo: Moses Mtonga Missionary Sunday Supplement
Irish Missionary Work – an Enduring Tradition
In recent decades, the work and impact of Irish missionaries overseas has garnered acknowledgement at home and abroad for its distinguished contributions to international development and efforts to eradicate poverty. The centuries old tradition of Irish missionary life, one of faith and service to the poor and vulnerable around the world, continues today with many dedicated religious and lay missionaries who seek out the furthest behind and walk alongside them to achieve a better life.
Since 2004, Misean Cara – an Irish missionary membership organisation generously supported by Irish Aid – has provided funding and practical support to Irish missionary congregations working across Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East, to deliver education, healthcare, livelihood training and human rights protection. In 2021, Misean Cara member organisations brought hope and life transforming projects to 1.9 million people in 51 countries.
TMissionaries have a unique way of conducting development work that enables them to identify and serve the furthest behind first. At the heart of it is a willingness to commit long-term to living and working in one place despite what hardships may come. Missionaries stay devoted to the people and communities where they live, even in conflict zones or remote and hard to reach areas. They are driven by a passion to see poverty reduced, people’s dignity recognised and basic human rights promoted
Today’s Missionaries
In the past many Irish families would have had a family member serving overseas with the Church–an aunt, uncle, brother or sister who would share stories of their missions while back home on leave. But who are today’s missionaries? Where are they working and how are they keeping the tradition of Irish missionary work alive? World Mission Sunday provides an ideal opportunity to highlight the incredible lives and impact of some of Misean Cara’s missionary members.
Sr. Eunice Quigley, Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, Zimbabwe
Sr Eunice Quigley was drawn to missionary life very early, as a young girl growing up in Dundalk in the 1960s. While at school, she attended a retreat at Mt. Oliver Convent and learned about the work the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa (FMSA) were doing with poor and marginalised communities overseas. She knew immediately that she wanted to devote her life to helping others in the same way. After her formation with the Sisters, she was sent to Zambia and taught high school for three years.
A pivotal change for Sr Eunice came in 1980, after a year home in Ireland she was transferred to Zimbabwe, which had just achieved independence. “There was great excitement at that time, with the building up of the nation” she says. Sr. Eunice was in her element, being a part of the movement to help young Zimbabweans access new pathways out of poverty.
However, when the AIDS epidemic hit Zimbabwe the impact on many young people was devastating, not only having to live with the illness but the associated social stigma. The economy suffered for years with worsening job and life prospects for many, especially those affected by HIV and AIDS.
Inspired by Sr Miriam Duggan – based in Uganda at the time but in Zimbabwe to teach about her successful ‘Education for Life’ youth programme– Sr Eunice set up ‘Youth Alive Zimbabwe’. In 1999 St. Dominic’s High school and the teaching profession to establish an interdenominational youth organisation which would empower youth and young adults with life skills to adopt positive attitudes, values and behaviour. Its mission is to see Zimbabwe realise an HIV and AIDS free generation in which young people are enabled to fulfil their dreams and ambitions in life with respect for humanity.
In response to the evolving needs in the communities, Youth Alive now implements life skills education, health and wellbeing, child protection, gender-based violence and women empowerment interventions. The organisation also reaches vulnerable groups in marginalised communities through psychosocial support, nutrition, education and vocational skills training, and assists women through saving and lending groups.
Sr. Eunice has been in Zimbabwe more than 40 years now, and just recently celebrated her 50th Jubilee with her Sisters in the FMSA. “There is a joy in the long-term commitment, in seeing where we’ve come from and being a part of where we are going,” she says. “They are very highly qualified young professional staff and Sisters now who are spear-heading Youth Alive programmes. They’re all Zimbabweans. My Deputy, Sr Elizabeth is from Zimbabwe. We are training the local teams out in the communities, choosing the natural leaders to continue the programmes. That’s the only way that we continue to empower communities,” she says. “I am grateful to my congregation FMSA and to Misean Cara for their support down through the years. I am proud of this Irish support.”
As she reflects on her life’s work as a missionary and how she’ll soon be passing on the leadership and future of Youth Alive Zimbabwe to the local FMSA Sisters, Sr Eunice comments “Ireland has a history of reaching out to the needy. We ourselves have suffered from famine, from racism and discrimination. In the beginning I was working for people here, now I’m working with them. My role now is to walk alongside them.”
Visit www.miseancara.ie/2022/10/world-mission-sunday-2022/ to learn more about Youth Alive Zimbabwe and how you can give your support.
Fr Gabriel Dolan, Saint Patrick’s Missionary Society (Kiltegans), Kenya
For more than 40 years, Fr Gabriel Dolan of the Saint Patrick’s Missionary Society (Kiltegans) has lived and worked in Kenya, fighting tirelessly for the human rights of marginalised and poor citizens.
Originally from Co. Fermanagh, he was ordained in 1982 and appointed to Kenya straight after.
As is typical for many Irish missionaries, Fr Gabriel has lived overseas for decades, posted first to the vast and remote arid northern region of Turkana (including during the severe famine years of 1979-1981), later to the West Pokot region and then on to Mombasa where he’s stayed since 2008.
Though social justice and human rights causes have been the focus of his work, he was in Kenya five or six years before starting on this path, first absorbing the local language, establishing local connections and getting to know the political landscape. “You need to be immersed in the culture, you need to know its nuances, how it works, you need to know where power lies and how systems fail people or profit from them, and why things are the way they are,” he says. “I always remind people ‘Change will come, but be patient, be consistent, be determined.’”
In 2008, after moving to Mombasa, Fr Gabriel set up the human rights organisation Haki Yetu (“Our Rights” in Swahili). Haki Yetu advocates for a peaceful society, dignity and justice for all those living in the informal settlements of Mombasa. Inspired by the motto “Act Justly, Love Tenderly and Walk Humbly with Thy God” Haki Yetu focuses on gender rights, land and housing issues, and advocating for fair treatment by government and housing bodies.
In 2021, Fr. Gabriel published a book of stories and memoirs of his more than four decades of work as a human rights defender, activist and founder of Haki Yetu. Undaunted: Stories of Freedom in a Shackled Society chronicles his time working on political and democratic rights, the right to land, housing, shelter, and freedom of speech for the marginalised peoples of Kenya.
Speaking of his decades as a human rights missionary defending the poor and the persecuted, Fr Gabriel says, “The greatest reward for those who respond to this calling is the satisfaction of witnessing positive change, even if only after many years of struggle.”
To learn more about Haki Yetu and to support the work of Fr Gabriel in upholding human rights in Kenya, visit www.miseancara.ie/2022/10/world-mission-sunday-2022/
Sr Yvonne Mwalula Mwila, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Zambia
Sr Yvonne Mwalula Mwila grew up in Chingola, Copperbelt Province, Zambia and felt the calling to a life serving the Church when she was young, joining the congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in 1997. Her work as a missionary has taken her to the UK, El Salvador and now back to Zambia, where she has worked mostly with children and young adults with special needs.
For four years now, Sr Yvonne Mwalula Mwila of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary has served as the Director of the Bauleni Special Needs Project and School (BSNP) in Lusaka, Zambia. The school, which opened its doors in 1996, is recognised as a Centre of Excellence for inclusive, special needs education in Zambia and is also the only school in the country to provide education and support to children who are both deaf and blind. Bauleni is a very poor and densely populated area of Lusaka where few other schools provide any kind of education or support options for the many disabled, orphaned and vulnerable children. “We are welcoming to all children and our work makes a big difference in their lives,” she says. “Most of the children we have here cannot be placed in other schools around Lusaka.”
The school also provides support to parents and families of children with disabilities, and trains youth in job skills to help them build a secure future. The promotion of child safeguarding and the rights of children, especially those with disabilities and special needs, is a crucial aspect of the school’s mission. A home-based programme for severely disabled children in the area has brought hope to families formerly suffering with no support but whose children are now receiving care for their developmental needs.
The holistic approach of the school is emblematic of missionary development work, placing an importance on upholding the essential dignity of all human beings. “Everyone can teach or do work in the community with vulnerable people. For me though, what makes missionary work different is the compassionate way that we work with people, that extra mile that we put into everything we do for the students here,” she says. “The work we do cannot be put in monetary terms, it’s so much more than that. It’s also the psychosocial and spiritual support we give the children and their families. At Bauleni, some our children are here with us 24/7. It’s another home for them. We create a space where they can really feel at home.”
To learn more and support the work of the Bauleni Special Needs Project, visit www.miseancara.ie/2022/10/world-mission-sunday-2022/
Sr Gertrude Mensah, Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny, Dublin, Ireland
Growing up in Ghana under the nurturing influence of her devoutly Catholic grandmother, Sr Gertrude Mensah had a strong faith from an early age. At just six years old, Sr Gertrude was already certain that her life path was to serve the church as a Sister. Before joining the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny after secondary school, she was very active with the Legion of Mary, going out on home visits to pray for the sick and bring gifts at Christmas to those in need.
Sr Gertrude, based in Dublin since 2020, is currently fulfilling a call to serve as the Missionary Development Officer with the Cluny Sisters on overseas projects, and works closely with Misean Cara, which is among its project funders. Sr Gertrude represents the growth of a vibrant movement of younger international missionaries who have trained in missionary work and carry on the charism of their Irish forebears. As the population of Irish missionaries around the world declines, the focus has shifted to training the growing number of young people joining congregations in Africa, Asia and Latin America, passing on the missionary vision and transferring leadership and management to a younger generation.
After completing her initiation, Sr Gertrude lived and worked alongside the needy in Sierra Leone, arriving in 2005, just three years after the end of the nation’s brutal 10-year civil war. “Missionaries always stay with the people. They remain in place before, during, and after a crisis,” she observes.
Many of the Sisters she served with in Sierra Leone had been there for years, and even relocated temporarily to refugee camps alongside their neighbours during the war, returning with them afterwards to rebuild their communities and lives.
While in Sierra Leone, Sr Gertrude worked closely alongside an Irish Sister from Donegal, Sister Mary Sweeney, who recognised the potential in Sr Gertrude’s strong devotion, faith, and emerging leadership skills, and was an important mentor to her and challenged her to take on more and more responsibility. Though Sr Gertrude herself sometimes doubted her strength and readiness for the work, as time went on, she began to see that through her experiences she was growing closer to the local people and becoming embedded in the community. “Relationships of trust are essential for effective, long-term development,” she says, recalling a time in Ghana when the trust and communication she had built up with local leaders in rural Domeabra was pivotal to reversing a reluctance to educate children of farming communities. The leaders eventually donated land on which to build a new school.
Over the years, Misean Cara has funded several Cluny Sisters education projects, including schools in Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mozambique along with a school for the hearing impaired in Sierra Leone. After the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, Misean Cara funded the rebuilding of a school, housing for orphans, and facilities to harvest rainwater and solar energy to sustain the project. “The impact of Misean Cara’s support on our projects is enormous,” Sr Gertrude says. She hopes in the future there will be support to enable the Sisters to continue improving their education projects and provide access to even greater numbers of students.
To learn more about the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny, visit www.miseancara.ie/2022/10/world-mission-sunday-2022/
Sr Mary McAteer, Missionary Sisters of the Assumption, South Africa
“I was aware from a young age that the world was unevenly divided,” says Sr Mary McAteer, who grew up in Glenarm, in the Glens of Antrim, and was a boarder at the school of the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption in Ballynahinch. “So, it was early on that I decided that my life would somehow be about how to make a difference”.
Her life in missionary work began in the mid-1980s, in a township in Pretoria, South Africa at a time when the unrest and backlash against the injustices of the country’s harsh Apartheid system of racial segregation was in full swing. “It was a time of great anger and hurt and desperation,” she says, for those living under Apartheid oppression. “I was very happy to be there at the time even though it tore the heart out of me, really, the suffering and injustice.”
It is very common for missionaries to serve willingly and remain steadfastly in places that others avoid, such as conflict zones, remote areas, and during times of great upheaval. Sr Mary stayed in Pretoria for another four years, working at a secondary school and later moving out to work at a high school in a rural area, where the community had no electricity or running water. The children there hardly knew there was trouble in the country, she comments. “Their concern was food, getting enough to eat.” She was present for the 1994 election, which brought the formerly imprisoned activist Nelson Mandela to the Presidency during the country’s first free elections. “It was a time you could never have dreamt would happen. It was like living through a miracle.”
She has remained living and working in South Africa since that time. In 2016 she was part of a team in Port Alfred, Eastern Cape who set up a small school for children with disabilities and special needs. The school provides a space where children can play, socialise and partake of simple skills training as they get older.
Funding support from Misean Cara helped the school stay open in its early years, as it gradually improved the quality of its programmes and outreach to increasing numbers of families. Misean Cara still supports the project which actively advocates for the rights of all those with disabilities in the province.
“If any young people are thinking about what they can do or contribute, or if they are thinking of becoming a missionary, I would 100% encourage them because it’s very worthwhile and it makes a huge difference,” she says. “I’m very grateful that God called me to do this.” She encourages others to be open to the idea of service too, to come as volunteers and give a year or two of their time if they have skills to share.
Sr Mary is now a board member of CATHCA, the Catholic Healthcare Association of Southern Africa, based in Johannesburg. CATHCA supports Catholic health care projects in South Africa, Eswatini and Botswana.
To learn more about the Missionary Sisters of the Assumption and their work with CATHCA in Southern Africa, visit www.miseancara.ie/2022/10/world-mission-sunday-2022/