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Irish Times, 2nd September 2005,
By David Adams
Sr Helen Ahern, a nun with the Medical Missionaries
of Mary, was taking some well-earned leave with her family at home
in Ireland when she became aware of the famine crisis in Niger,
writes David Adams
Her friend of many years, Sr Nina Underwood (who had
to retire from the Medical Missionaries to care for her elderly
mother), saw news footage of the tragedy at home in the US.
Without consulting one another, each decided instantly
that she should put her years of service nursing in Africa at the
disposal of the unfortunate people of Niger.
Though I couldn't have known it at the time, it was
my remarkable good fortune to have volunteered for the same humanitarian
organisation as the two sisters (though for a much shorter duration)
and that we would travel together to Niger.
Though to be honest, I was in two minds when GOAL
- the organisation for which each of us volunteered - told me I
was to meet a nun at Dublin airport, travel to Paris to meet another
nun, and then on to Niger.
On the one hand, I was quite relieved to have any
company at all.
I had to pick up my entry visa for Niger in Paris,
stay overnight there, and then complete the second leg of my journey
the next morning.
Unable to understand anything beyond the most basic
of French, I would probably need all the help I could get.
But never having actually met a nun, I wasn't quite
sure what to expect, either.
I certainly didn't fancy spending a couple of days
listening to two sisters prattling on about religion or, worse still,
them virtually ignoring me when they twigged I was Protestant.
As it turned out, I needn't have worried.
Helen and Nina - "You don't have to keep calling
us Sister, David" - are two of the loveliest and most remarkable
people I have ever met.
Helen (66) has spent over 38 years living and working
in various parts of west Africa.
On account of the financial pressure that the Medical
Missionaries of Mary is constantly under, during service sisters
are entitled to only about three months' home leave once every three
years. So, for them and their colleagues, it really is a case of
quickly acclimatising to your surroundings and becoming part of
the local population.
As a nurse and missionary, Helen has worked with deprived
people in some of the most dangerous parts of Africa. For the past
eight years she has been part of a small community in Kampala, Uganda,
where among her many other activities she visits and ministers to
both male and female prisoners.
She told me of how heartbroken she is each time one
of her friends - and she counts every prisoner she visits as her
friend - is found to have Aids and her terrible sense of loss when
any of them dies.
Also of how, in complete and horrific contrast, some
of the long-term prisoners are actually disappointed if they aren't
diagnosed with Aids because such diagnosis entitles them to the
small "luxury" of a mattress.
Before retiring, Nina (63) spent over 30 years working
in various parts of Africa as well. During her service, she qualified
as a pilot to help set up field hospitals in remote parts of Kenya;
worked in the infamous Kibera slum in Nairobi on health education
and Aids awareness; and, only a month after arriving in the country,
was kidnapped and held hostage for 10 days by a rebel group in Sudan.
On release, she was expelled though readmitted after a month.
As she told me her story, I couldn't help thinking
that nothing on this earth would have coaxed me to go back near
the place again.
But then very few of us are made of the same stuff
as Nina and Helen.
During my travels with the sisters - which included
a 1,000-km one-day car journey from one part of Niger to another
- my admiration for them grew by the minute. Over decades they have
dedicated themselves to trying to ease misery and suffering in some
of the most dangerous countries in Africa.
And yet, even now in the latter part of their lives,
as soon as they became aware of the situation in Niger they were
driven to volunteer for service with GOAL - how could one do other
than admire them? On meeting, they befriended me immediately and,
in a deliberately non-intrusive way, have advised me and generally
looked after my welfare and interests ever since.
I need hardly add, I suppose, that like every other
GOAL volunteer here in Niger, both ladies report for duty early
each morning to spend at least 12 hours in the field - sometimes
having to travel 100 km from our distribution site - seeing to the
needs of malnourished mothers and children.
There is never as much as a hint of complaint from
them: just good humour and a real concern for others.
Sometimes your faith in humanity really can be restored
- Helen and Nina have certainly restored mine.
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