Doreen Ajiambo

"May the Lord give them good health and safety as they work to heal and serve us." The nature of sisters' work in Africa — health care, education, community projects — has put them at risk during the pandemic.

With nearly half the population living on less than $2 a day, Zimbabwe is a place where people take risks to find jobs in other countries and where others take advantage of that desperation.

To mark World Humanitarian Day, GSR asked Catholic sisters and those they work with in four countries — Malawi, Kenya, India and El Salvador — about their humanitarian ministries in the face of the pandemic.

The Daughters of the Redeemer use produce grown on their 15 acres outside Chilanga, Zambia, to feed young students and vulnerable families, and have taken training in organic farming to villages in the area.

Cheshire Home for the Elderly in the Kariobangi slum northeast of Nairobi, run by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, used to be a hive of activity. More than 300 men and women of advanced age would meet their relatives and lifelong friends every day. They would share meals and pray together.

In an area that experiences routine flooding, sisters, who have been distributing relief items to families affected by COVID-19 restrictions and food shortages caused by locusts are appealing for humanitarian support.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage Kenya, Sr. Winnie Mutuku has managed to sustain a feeding program for street children and families in Kitale, a town about 280 miles west of Nairobi.

Sisters in African countries are using their own money in some cases to provide food for people whose livelihood has vanished during coronavirus lockdowns. They are doing outreach, making masks and hand sanitizer to give away to people who used to earn — and live on — about a dollar a day.

The widespread belief in witchcraft West Africa has devastating consequences, especially for women and especially when they have property at stake after becoming widowed. Accused, they are tortured, sometimes killed, and at best are driven from their homes to live in exile with their children.

Bungoma Regional Police Chief and County Commissioner Abdi Hassan said that his officers managed to arrest two priests, 13 nuns and 46 congregants as they were conducting a church service despite a government directive issued March 14 that bans all public gatherings in order to tame the spread of COVID-19.

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Sr. Caroline Ngatia runs Kwetu Home of Peace, where homeless boys ages 8-14 are plucked from the streets and inducted into a process of reintegration.

"The transformation I see in the life of survivors whose recoveries I've been part of makes me want to give up my all to save the lives of others," says the Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul from Nigeria.

Looking to change lives in prison and after release, sisters bring inmates food, underwear, sanitary pads, Bibles and basic health services, along with teaching skills, spiritual coaching and behavioral change.

Tanzania is rated among the 20 countries with the highest maternal mortality rate, and among the Masai community there, the rate is higher than the national average. Catholic sisters are providing education, advocacy and hospitals to turn that around.

Dozens of nuns battled thick mud and floodwaters across the remote areas of eastern Uganda to find survivors of a deadly river burst that submerged entire villages. "We took most survivors to various churches and are stranded as they are living without food, beddings and clothing among other basic needs," said one sister.

In some parts of Ghana, children born with physical and mental disabilities are believed to be "spirit children" who cause of all kinds of misfortunes, from famine and failed crops to infertility and the death of parents. As a result, many of these children are killed. One sister is working to save their lives.

Religious sisters, grantees and partners convened in the U.S. and in Zambia for the Hilton Foundation's discussion of ways to achieve the goals of its Catholic Sisters Strategic Initiative Strategy.

Mary Rashmi, a Notre Dame Sister, works with Tanzania's Masai community. She started an organization to improve the lives of women and children by increasing access to social services and economic empowerment.

South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa said that gender-based violence had increased during xenophobic attacks that began Sept. 1 and targeted foreign-owned businesses in and around Johannesburg. That month, the Southern Africa Catholic Nuns, a newly organized group, called for unity amid raging xenophobic attacks and condemned gender-based violence, including rape, sexual harassment and battery against migrant women.