By Rose Achiego
The Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of St. Anne has commissioned three of its nuns to the Catholic Archdiocese of Dodoma following an invitation of Archbishop Beatusi Kinyaiya OFM and the Jesuit Priests who are running St. Peter Clever’s High School.
In an interview with Mother General Sr. Mary Benigna Aoko, on 21st, May 2019, in Utawala, the people in Dodoma are very much in need of Sisters for pastoral care, education and medical care due to inadequacy of professional personnel. The Sister sent are; Sr. Vincent Wanjiku, Sr. Mary Everlyne Awich and Sr. Janet Ombima.
“As a congregation this is part of growth because it is always not good to have so many people at one particular place when other places need the Sisters,” Sr. Benigna said.
She further revealed that Franciscan Sisters of St. Anne are planning to settle in Tanzania having acquired a property to build a convent, a school and hospital to address the needs of the people.
“The boy child is quite neglected in this are due to too much campaign on girl child education and empowerment and also lack of good schools for boys,” she said.
Between 2007 and 2013, the Franciscan sisters tried mission work in Musoma, Tanzania but were faced with numerous challenges that forced them to leave Tanzania.
“We were initially in Musoma dealing with street children and offering counseling and guidance to married couples. We faced challenges of work permit, which went up three times and so was very expensive for us. The rent of the place where we were hosting children also went up and the people become hostile wanting their own to run the institution.” She said.
Franciscan Sisters of St. Anne is a pontifical congregation established in 1887 in Netherlands. They came to Kenya in 1958 where they have worked in the areas of health, education and social ministry in Siaya, Homabay, Bungoma, Kisumu, Nairobi, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Netherlands.
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