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Courtesy of Sister Paschalia Nyeura, FSSB - Boys at the orphanage in Tanzania eat bananas during meal time.
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Sister Paschalia Nyeura, FSSB, and Sister Carissima Ogbu, DMMM, are different kinds of missionaries. They were born in Africa and have worked for their communities’ mission outreaches. They have both been in the Diocese of Buffalo several years to further their education but also to continue the mission work of their respective communities.
Sister Paschalia has been in her community for 22 years and in the U.S. for seven. She received a scholarship to Daemen College and has received a master’s degree in accounting. She was drawn to religious life because her family was active in the Church and she was around a lot of nuns while growing up.
“My family was very Catholic,” Sister Paschalia said. “When I saw the nuns I really wanted to be like them. How they dressed. How they worked. I saw they were holy people and I wanted to be holy like them.”
Sister Paschalia taught religion after joining the Franciscan Sisters of St. Bernadette. She also worked in other areas of ministry.
“We taught in schools but we also helped take care of orphans, helped refugees and worked in hospitals,” Sister Paschalia said.
Sister Carissima also had much contact with sisters in religious communities when she was growing up. She faced quite an obstacle in becoming a Daughter of Mary Mother of Mercy because she was a first-born daughter who traditionally gets married.
“It was a challenge for my family to accept the reality of my going into religious life,” Sister Carissima said. “Spending a lot of time in the parish doing religious activities lured me into choosing this life.”
Sister Carissima did a lot of apostolic work in Nigeria. She coordinated RCIA, Pre-Cana and eventually became a principal of an elementary school.
Sister Carissima would walk three miles a day reaching out to families and the poor. She also helped with fund raising to get clothes for children going to school.
She was asked to come to the U.S. in 1996. She received a scholarship from Niagara University and was named Student of the Year in 2003.
Both religious women speak with a conviction of wanting to share something they know is good. They continue to help the ministries of their communities.
“Whatever we get goes home,” Sister Carissima said. “We have orphanages at home. We have juniorates. We have unwed teens. We have homes, destitute children.”
The community helps house, clothe and feed children. The sisters make sure the children go to school.
“We support the community at home,” Sister Carissima said. “We have maternity homes, hospitals and schools from kindergarten to college.”
With the help of Father Ronald Sajdak, director of the Propagation of the Faith, Sister Paschalia recently spoke at St. Bernadette Parish in Orchard Park. She spoke about the possibility of the parish adopting her community’s missions.
“Our big mission is to start a school,” Sister Paschalia said. “We have 36 children in the orphanage. We need to help the children get an education. It is very expensive for the community. The community is very poor.”
Sister Carissima painted a very bleak picture of the needs of her community. Classrooms with no desks or chairs. Hospitals with no beds.
“Patients have to lie on mats on the floor,” Sister Carissima said. “Hospitals have no syringes. There are severe medical problems. Malaria is a huge epidemic.”
Sister Carissima’s hope is to work with mentally challenged children and their families. She looks at her time in the U.S. as an opportunity to educate herself to be able to help them.
“When I go home, that is what I want to do,” she said. “I will try to work with them. I want to show how the Western world deals with mental illness as opposed to how it is dealt with back home. They don’t accept mental illness at home. They are rejected. They are not welcome. My hope is to be able to switch that around so they realize it is like a disease or disorder.”
Sister Paschalia’s hope is to give a future to the children in the orphanage supported by her community.
“If we can educate them, they can depend on themselves,” she said. “Our hope is to give them a school and help give the children a good education, good morals and teach them religion.”
Anyone interested in adopting the African communities or making a donation may contact Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy, Lockport Community, 97 Allen St., Lockport, N.Y. 14094 or Franciscan Sisters of St. Bernadette, 63 Darwin Dr., Snyder, NY 14226.