By Oliver Mirembe
Sister Guidita who served in Uganda for fourteen years feels happy to retire from her pastoral work as a nurse. She is also contented that the Lord has answered her prayers of attracting young girls into her religious community.
Sr. Guidita was baptized as Angella Andreaza and took Guidita as a religious name. She came to Uganda on the request of Fr Biagioli who was unable to serve all spiritual, mental and physical needs of the people of Kisoga in Mukono district. Fr. Biagioli requested the Superior General in Rome to send some sisters to help him especially with skills in the medical and education fields. Guidita and Sister Benezia Madalena (RIP) were told to leave their mission in Swaziland for Uganda in December 2000. Sr. Benezia was assigned to primary school while Sr. Guidita opened a tailoring school on the request of Bishop Matthias Ssekamanya, the then Bishop of Lugazi Diocese.
While on her usual duties as dressmaker and administrator of the Institution, a priest (Fr.O’Connel OSM) approached Sr. Guidita and encouraged her to join one Sylvia who was teaching Public health and HIV Aids and its stigma in Mokono district. The natives at first flocked to her for information. Soon the turn-up dropped because of the theoretical education without practical medical aspect of issuing drugs. Sr. Guiditta on the request of Fr. O’Connel and her community came to give drugs to the HIV patients and transport to those who needed referral hospital services for major illnesses. Guidita and Sylvia worked together for three years. They visited villages in Mokono and Buikwe and others followed Guidita to the convent for the administration of drugs. Sr. Guidita says the patients were not only crowding their community but they would stand in the sun or in the rain despite their sickness until they receive medicine. Eventually they constructed a health unit, which gave birth to a full clinic. This health facility was born without a plan or the authorization of the Ordinary of the Diocese. However, the bishop never complained. Now the clinic attracts patients with all kinds of illnesses in Mukono district.
When the clinic took shape, Guidita worked in shifts with another sister. This gave her chance to visit villages to teach Catechism and also to promote religious vocation. “Now am happy that the Lord finally heard my cry as there are over twenty sisters of which four have made perpetual vows and am optimistic that the convent will be filled to the brim. There are successors to carry on the work when I leave Uganda, where the Catholic Church is well established and rooted in the blood of the martyrs, who did not die for no nothing.”
At the clinic and during the pastoral visits Guidita could see natives falling sick time to time. Although introduced to ARVs, the women for instance were sicklier and she realized that these widows were malnourished with poor accommodation. She constructed a two-roomed house for them. The ladies improved in health and were taught how to make crafts like baskets to earn a living. The baskets were exported to Italy under the care of Servites sisters and fathers. The money obtained helped the ladies to buy basic needs. However, as economic crisis deepened, a few people could buy baskets so sister decided to start a tailoring industry to make school uniforms and employed the ladies. This went hand in hand with the weaving of baskets.
Before Guidita went to Swaziland, she rendered a joyful service in a hospital as a nurse and this did not deter her from praying to God to be a missionary. Soon a request came from the General Superior, requesting some sisters to go work in Swaziland. Although she did not have the interest to come to Africa, she could not withdraw her words of request to God to be a missionary. She came to Swaziland in September 1970 at the age of 33 thirty-three and could only speak Italian. She had to learn Zulu (there no written material in SiSwati language and English that time), Sr. Guidita used a lot of sign language to proclaim the Good News to reach out to many people. She would visit and treat patients at their homes in Swaziland and informally cross the boarder fence by trespassing like any other Swazi and cross to South Africa to visit and treat patients. She was consoled one day as they were coming back from their daily routine with another sister and met a woman with a big luggage, on helping the woman to put down her luggage and cross the (fence)boarder . The woman exclaimed in SiSwati, ‘today I have met the Gospel’.
After learning Zulu and English, the Superior offered her three options; to continue learning English, stay in the community or to go for further studies. She decided to go for further studies in Midwifery. This was due to the need for a midwife in Hluti, where pregnant mothers had no attendants and some could not manage to walk to the community clinic due to the hilly terrain. Besides, Swazi mothers of that time believed that soil could heal bleeding and the umbilical cords of babies. This belief heightened the risk of babies to unhygienic diseases like tetanus.
Guidita went to South Africa for midwifery course and returned to work at the community clinic helping antenatal mothers and children. She continued with home visits to treat those unable to come to the clinic. She did this for 20 years and thereafter transferred to Florence, – Swaziland. In Florence she continued with her nursing services and midwifery, where she realized that the women could sit at the clinic the whole day gossiping and buy a few groceries. And felt: “if these women are organized into groups, they could grow vegetables, sell and take home some and also have a better financial stand. She encouraged them to form a development group and brought to them an agriculturalist to teach them farming. She provided land to the group and also employed a supervisor to help them to clear the land. The groups successfully grew vegetables and were able to provide some to their families, sell off some for money.
This challenged the Local area Chief, who asked the group why they hadn’t consulted him about the development. Because he was ashamed, he offered land to the group (in Swaziland, the land belongs to the king and the king appoints chiefs and these chiefs have power to give out land). The group used the first piece of land for pilot study and that offered by the chief, because it was bigger to grow vegetables. The group grew and every member financially benefited and the idea of gossiping the whole day ended. After five years in Florence, Sr. Guidita was transferred to Piggspeak.
In Piggspeak she continued with nursing and midwifery coupled with outreaches. She also taught catechism and dress making which she learnt from her mother. Her preoccupation was, since herself and fellow sisters are aging without seeing young girls joining them, what would the future of the congregation be? Swaziland has less than 12% of Catholics yet the few Catholics are influenced by traditional beliefs, “brides of Christ’’ would not mean anything for them. After five years in Piggspeak, she left for Uganda, in Lugazi Diocese where she is considering retiring from active missionary work after 89 years. Sister says the Swazi people were hospitable and ready to work for the common good.
Sister’s parting words are: “As long as you have time, do something to promote the growth of the Lord’s vineyard. Immediately after being declared a Pope, Pope Francis went to the Island of Lampenduza where African migrants perished and others disembarked on Mediterranean Sea. He looked at the situation and felt sorry and lamented that; “The culture of our own well-being makes us insensitive to the cries of others,” he said. “It brings us to feeling indifferent to others, to the globalization of indifference.” And so the Pope calls the religious to go ‘out of their nests’. There is need to be generous and open hearted towards our sisters and brothers. Where you are, go out, because, you are on a mission.
