Former nun left convent to serve the destitute in Mathare slum, Nairobi

By BRIGID CHEMWENO and MAUREEN ABWAO

NAIROBI COUNTY: Her story is one of passion and resilience in helping address the plight of those who have not been fortunate enough to have a place to call home.

For Mary Njeru, a former nun, ten years at the convent did not give her the inner satisfaction she enjoyed when helping the poor and less privileged in society.

Having taken the oath of celibacy with the Catholic Church under the congregation of the Little Sisters of St Francis, Mary one day woke up and decided that it was time to remove her veil and quit the vocation that she had dedicated her entire life to.

“I decided to quit my vocation of serving as a nun, not because I had any bad intentions or because I had been kicked out of the convent, but because I wanted a break from it all and to rethink my life,” says Mary.

The former nun took the bold step to leave one of the convent facilities where she worked as a manager and decided to plunge into the murky waters of uncertainty.

After leaving the nunnery, Mary felt life would not be meaningful if she just stayed home doing nothing, considering that she had a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration.

She ventured out to look for employment in neighbouring Tanzania where she worked as a manager in a Catholic-owned conference facility at a place known as Kibaha.

CONTRACT EXPIRED

“I worked in the facility in Tanzania as the manager but after sometime I lost the job as the contract came to an end and it was back to the drawing board for me. I had to come back to Kenya.”

Life back home was not a walk in the park as she had no job. As if that was not bad enough, she soon fell ill.

“It is then that reality dawned on me that life could be challenging and full of tribulations,” says Mary.

She was staying in Pangani in Nairobi then when one of the nuns she used to work with paid her a visit while on her sick bed.

Her former colleague encouraged her and shared with her the story of a children’s centre that they had just started in Mathare slums. This aroused her interest. Once she recovered, she went looking for the place, not considering the harsh conditions of slum life.

She met Father David Kamau, a lecturer at Tangaza College and the founder of Mama Africa Centre.The centre rehabilitates street families as well as helping orphans in the slums.

To these groups, the centre offers education as well as medical support, with a special focus on those suffering from HIV and Aids.

Without giving it much thought, Mary says she decided to take up the challenge and relocated to the informal settlement.

“I decided to relocate to the slums as it was dangerous for me to go the slums at night when emergencies such as fire or robbery incidents occurred near the centre, which is a norm here in Mathare.”

While at the centre, she met people with so many needs and problems and this moved her.

But there is one incident that has never escaped her mind.

The incident served as a motivator and kept her grounded to continue working with the community.

“One morning, we found a street boy dead outside our premises. We later on learned the boy had died of starvation,” she recalls.

This prompted the group to start a feeding programme for the street families. Currently, they feed them every Sunday and give porridge to breastfeeding street mothers every day.

They run a school in the slum that has 217 pupils, mainly from the streets and the neighbourhood.

However, working in such an environment cost Mary her marriage.  Her husband walked out on her after their one-year-old baby fell ill, claiming the child had become sick because of Mary’s work of helping street families and orphans.

He said the child had contracted the disease from the destitute families she was working with.

Though her family members were not pleased with her move to relocate from Pangani to live in Mathare slums, Mary says her aim is to see the slum children come to the same level with their peers.

She says she has dedicated the rest of her life to serve the less fortunate in the society.