Stories from the Missions
Sr. Mary Rita O'Mahony and Olivia Teahan recently shared their thoughts in the recent Irish Catholic Mission Sunday supplement.
Sr. Mary Rita O’Mahony arrived in Ghana, by boat, on September 29th 1959 and has spent some 57 years living out the OLA Missionary Charism in West Africa as a teacher through the education and formation of African women. Here she shares one example of how the support of the missions from Ireland over the years has helped educate women in Africa and continues to do so to this very day.
Sr. Mary Rita with children of Bofoyaw Primary School in Cape Coast, Ghana.
"I arrived in the very remote village of Kenyasi in the Brong Ahafo region in 1977. It truly was one of my happiest times. The OLA Sisters had set-up the first girl’s secondary school in the Brong Ahafo region a few years before we arrived and we had very little in the way of resources. There was no electricity or running water. No television, radio or telephone – in some ways this explains my ‘hangover’ with trying to get to grips with mobile phones and smart phones of today!
Kenyasi was blessed with fertile soils and abundant rains which made it ideal for cacao growing. However, the area was noted for its low education attainment and very few girls went to secondary school. Before the OLAs arrived, there were no girl’s secondary schools in the entire region which is about half the size of the province of Munster! In the mixed second level schools, girls accounted for between 10% and 20% of the total school population. A girl’s education was not considered a priority. We would often be met with the response ‘why bother educating girls’ when going around encouraging parents to send their girls to school
The local residents felt a ‘book’ education would mean they would have to leave the village to study or search for a job. The thinking was that a girl’s role in society was to get married, rear children and help on the cacao farms. That particular year (1978), forty girls started secondary school with eight graduating five years later. We decided to give all eight a job in the school as typists, librarians etc. It meant they could stay in the village and earn an income. It is said that if you raise the salary of a woman you raise her family! In June 1994, I left Kenyasi as I had reached retirement age for teachers and I began a new apostolate elsewhere in Ghana. Last year I had the opportunity to return to Kenyasi for the first time since I left in 1994. Soon after arriving in the village, I was approached by a middle aged lady who welcomed me by proclaiming joyfully that ‘all of my children are now graduates’. After a moment I realized it was Cecilia – one of the young women who had graduated in 1978 and took a job in the school as a typist. Her parents never went to school. Now, all of her children were teachers and nurses. I will never forget the joy on her face when I met her that day. It meant the world to her. These days the classrooms in the girl’s secondary school are full to capacity. It is here that future leaders of the local community are being formed. And many go on to take their place at national and international level. Thank you for helping us to achieve our mission."
Sr. Loretta McCarthy with students of OLA Girls Secondary School in Kenyasi, Ghana. Image courtesy of the OLA Provincial Archive.
Olivia Teahan recently volunteered with the OLA Sisters in Tanzania. During her time in Tanzania, Olivia spent time working with the Sisters in the villages of Bugisi and Mwamapalala located in the Diocese of Shinyanga in northern Tanzania. Here Olivia recounts one of her Bugisi mission experiences.
Olivia Teahan with a local family in Bugisi, Tanzania.
"In Bugisi there is a nursery and a training college, both of which I had the pleasure of working in every morning. I was greeted every morning by the nursery children with ‘Good Morning, Sister!’. They were eager to learn English. The training college students were young women aged from 19-21 in general. Their English standard improved over the weeks and that was really brilliant to see. I hope they will continue to believe in themselves and in their abilities, they were a pleasure to be with. In the evenings, I did one-to-one classes with two exam students - with whom I am still in contact with. I was really thrilled to know that they found our classes useful in understanding what the exams would require and how to approach questions. I am happy that I was able to give them some support coming up to the exam! In fact, a young man Castory Maico who is doing his exams for his fourth year of secondary school recently told me that his exam had included the particular poetry question that we had practiced together. Again these students were truly dedicated and enthusiastic learners and workers. I was lucky to meet such wonderful people."
