Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
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| Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe |
A Catholic nun Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe who teaches at St. Monica Girls Training Centre in Gulu District, Uganda, has been shortlisted in the top 50 for the global prize 2020 worth USD $1 Million.
Global teacher prizeis an annual award given by the Varkey Foundation to an exceptional teacher who makes an outstanding contribution to the profession, the students and the society at large.
“Getting the news was very exciting but it also came at the time when we are confronted with bad news about Covid-19. I felt God has always a message of hope even during the worst times of our life,” said the Ugandan nun who is stranded in the United States of America (USA) due to COVID-19 pandemic to AMECEA Online in an interview, adding that she did not anticipate to be shortlisted.
“This is just a process and not a final decision as there are millions of educators in the world who are better than me even among my own sisters in the congregation,” but she acknowledges.
Sr. Nyirumbe, a nun of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Congregation founded in Uganda, has been empowering women whose formal education was cut off due to a civil war initiated by the Lord's Resistance Army, rebel group whose intent was to overthrow the government of Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda.
“My motivation of empowering women started during the war of the Lord's Resistance Army who made a lot of children miss out on formal education as they were abducted to be trained as child soldiers in Northern Uganda,” Sr. Nyirumbe who has been director of the school said and continued, “I witnessed girls being doubly disadvantaged because they were also used as sex slaves and n the process got got children from the rebels.”
Explaining further why she chose on women but not men, the nun who had served two terms as a Delegation Superior of her Congregation said, “I opted for women when I knew it would make me address the need of boys and girls’ education as well. Mothers are allowed to come to school with their children to promote mother and child education, especially for them to gain more confidence. Hence, I introduced a kindergarten and a day care on the same school compound.”
She stated that, “Getting women to be empowered comes from the need we see around in our society. The need for skills education, literacy and vocational training especially for young girls who drop out of schools for various reasons.”
Asked how she would spend the USD $1 Million in case she emerges winner of the Prize, the she nun explained, “I will use the money to continue the work of promoting vulnerable women and children.”
Since Sr. Nyirumbe began empowering the women, many of them have stabilized in life and are capable of caring for their children unlike before.
“A good number of those who have been empowered have settled and are able to care for their own children and some of them are leading their friends in a network advocacy,” she said adding that she continues working with them at different levels.
“I brought more than four girls to give their testimonies in their own word in the United States of America more than once. I took a girl who gave her testimony in front of a big crowd during the Congressional Prayer Breakfast and I always want them to be able to speak for themselves.”
According to Sr. Nyirumbe, her main responsibilities in empowering the women is to advise, lead and teach practical skills.
She further appreciated the support from her Congregation saying, “My Congregation makes a huge contribution by supporting this work (and) sending more Sisters to work. The work is not mine but is a mission for the Congregation.”
During her teaching profession, Sr. Nyirumbe has received CNN Heroes Award in 2017 and was among three people chosen to be Super Heroes. She received the first Veritatis Splendor Award after Pope John Paul 11 in Poland, UN Women Award, and was among the Times 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2014. Later she also got the Nalubale Medal of Honour from the President of Uganda.