Sr. Chioma Ezeh took over the management of Our Lady’s Nursery and Primary school Bomadi in January 2023. For her, it has been one of the difficult areas to work in. It was a rainy Wednesday morning while the head teacher’s office was very busy attending to numerous duties, as she looked outside her window, she saw a physically challenged woman crawling on her knees towards the office. The head teacher quickly rushed to welcome her and brought her into the office. Enquiring from her, the woman disclosed that she is a single mother who has never been married and her name is Indiana-ere James. She has three beautiful children, all boys, the oldest is about 12 years old and none is in school. She shared many bitter stories.
After much conversation, the head teacher discussed with the sisters in the community concerning the way out for Indian-ere and her children. Afterwards, one of her sons was given a scholarship in our school and the woman was very excited and gave thanks to God who came through for her through the Religious Sisters of Charity.
In a move to empower Indiana-ere, through the help of Sr. Maureen Anoje RSC, Administrator of Compassion Centre for Physically Challenged Children, the sisters gave her a wheelchair for mobilization and supported her with some food stuffs. It has become obvious to me that Christ has no other hands-on earth but ours, no legs, no eyes, no mouths, no ears, and no intellect here on earth but ours. In Bomadi, the presence of the RSC has been very impactful in the lives of the people. The Religious Sisters of Charity, through the Regional Leadership Team are sponsoring over forty primary school pupils in Bomadi. When it was discovered that many of the pupils in our school are mal-nourished due to excessive illnesses that hit them, the RSC provided nutrition as food supplement and support. This evidently is the spirit of our foundress Venerable Mary Aikenhead (VMA) in action.
Venerable Mary Aikenhead instructed her daughters to give to the poor what the rich can have with money. Over the years, this particular saying of hers has inspired the Religious Sisters of Charity (RSC) to painstakingly reach out to people who are made poor at different levels in Bomadi.
Bomadi is in the heart of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is an oil-producing community that has suffered economic deprivation and marginalization. They are in abject poverty and destitution. Most of the surrounding communities and villages are completely cut off as they have no access roads to big urban cities and facilities like schools and health care centres. They travel mainly by river which is extremely expensive. Most of the Creek villages have no potable water, no electricity, no functional health facility, and of course no standard-equipped educational institutions. And these deprivations make them vulnerable for abuses. The sons and daughters who have had the opportunity of education and exposure to better living conditions have continued to protest and demand their rights from the government.
The Religious Sisters of Charity have continued to minister to humanity at different capacity. Our Lady’s Nursery and Primary School, owned by Catholic Diocese of Bomadi, is one of the ministries of the RSC where Children who are mostly deprived of quality education, and many other necessary basic facilities receive succor.
“Providence can provide, providence does provide, providence will provide,” (VMA). Thanks be to God as Venerable Mary Aikenhead would say; the poor will open the gate of heaven for us. Amen.
