Mending soul and body

by Vittoria Prisciandaro*

It doesn’t matter whether it is fine embroidery or patched-up pieces of fabric, haute couture dresses or kitchen aprons. What counts is the threading of one stitch after another, setting a rhythm to the pedal of the old Singer sewing machine and to the flow of breath, which imperceptibly slows down. In this process, as it does so, it pushes away memories of horror, and of wounds that mark the body and devastate the mind.

Joining edges and mending wounds. This could be the slogan that accompanies Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe’s mission, who runs the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In addition to her administrative role, Sister Rosemary is a midwife with a degree and an MA in ethics and development sociology. In the first years of the new millenium, she founded the Saint Monica Center in Uganda, which has saved thousands of young girls who had been kidnapped and enslaved by the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). There has been widespread international recognition of her work. For example, in 2014, Time celebrated her as one of the 100 most influential women in the world; in the same year she received the United Nations Women Impact Award; and, for CNN, she was the Hero of the Year in 2007. Sister Rosemary has been called the Mother Teresa of Africa. At 69, and at five foot three, she is full of energy and determination, who loves simple words, which have been made effective through action.

“Walking in hope, throughout my life, has always meant going toward vulnerable people, to understand their pain by trying to walk in their shoes. I try to bring hope in a very practical way, by helping them. Without talking about God; in fact, the mere fact of being there testifies to my faith in God, who takes care of everyone”, says Sister Rosemary.

In her biography (Rosemary Nyirumbe, Sewing Hope, published by EMI), the nun recounts the situation that sealed her vocation, stating, “The LRA soldiers kidnapped thousands of minors from schools and homes, which according to some estimates, is up to 30,000, and killed their families and teachers, and forced them to fight. Boys were ordered to rape and kill; girls, some just entering puberty, were taken into the forest, used as sex slaves, and impregnated by men much older than them. The mouths of those who voiced protest or cried out were shut with a padlock or cut off. Ear lobes and noses were torn off, hands were cut off at the wrist with a single blow of a long sharp machete called a panga. Prisoners who tried to escape or refused to carry out the order to kill their own relatives were executed with a gunshot”.

Sister Rosemary’s path has crossed with those of thousands of these women. “Hope for them was someone who understood them. When I met them, I felt fully how broken they were, and as if this were not bad enough, they were marginalized too. We embraced them, and accepted them as they were, and saw that the life that had been stolen from them could be rebuilt. That is why I always speak of sewing, of repairing that which is torn. I say the sewing machine is ‘exactly the opposite of the machine guns they taught you to use to destroy life’”.

We started the sewing school, then a catering business, then a daycare center for the children, for the sons and daughters of violence. This was followed by the multiplying of locations to meet the many requests, and finding benefactors and help. All this has not been easy, let alone the fear.

“The hardest moments of my life were when I feared I might meet the rebels face to face. I asked myself, ‘Will I see tomorrow?’ It was exactly the same fear those women had. That’s when I understood what it meant to live and to lose hope. I immediately made a simple prayer, saying ‘God, if the time comes that I must meet these rebels, let me respect them and may they respect me. Then they will see your face in me. And I also want to see Your face in them’. I want them to understand I’m ready to accept them too”.

“And that’s exactly what happened one day”. A rebel was hiding in our kitchen. I became completely frozen. But, I had to gather courage and ask him, ‘Please, what are you doing here? Can you leave? Because if other soldiers come and find you, they’ll think I’m a collaborator and they’ll kill us both’. I said it kindly, I didn’t plan it, it just came out of my mouth automatically. He left, and then came back five minutes later and said, ‘I don’t want to get you into trouble’. He removed all the bullets he had hidden in the kitchen”. Among the thousands of women she has met, a few have touched her deeply.

“The first is a girl who shared a room with a friend. One day she told me, “Sister, I feel bad sharing the room with that girl, because I found out that while we were in captivity, I was one of those who killed her parents. She doesn’t know me, but I know it now, and I feel very guilty”. I told her to speak with her, that it wasn’t her fault for what she had been forced to do. “Now you live together. She sees you as a sister, and you help her take care of her child. Forgive, and carry on”.

The nun’s projects have gained international resonance, and Sister Rosemary has also met many Western women.

“They were different from Ugandan women, but they also needed to be reborn. They appreciated that I’m just myself, I don’t pretend to be someone else. I live my life, many don’t even know I have a certain level of education, and I don’t care. I want to be an example through my hope, my prayer, and the women’s empowerment projects”.

The strength and simplicity of this small, great woman have made her credible in the eyes of the women violated and redeemed through work. In the eyes of the guerrillas, who have left her alone and have not attacked the schools; in the eyes of students in Oklahoma and other universities who attend her seminars on enterprises and cooperatives (from handbags to dresses to catering) that give African women work and dignity. Moreover, also in the eyes of American benefactors, who have found a seed of hope for humanity and a deeper meaning for their lives in her projects.

In the concluson of her autobiography, Sister Rosemary says we must never stop dreaming. What does she hope for her future? “Today I dream of helping children in South Sudan too. We have launched a nutrition program there to where we bring peanuts that we grow in Uganda. I want women, the people in Uganda, to be involved in farming because it’s a way to give jobs and teach them how to fight malnutrition. I don’t want big dreams, which usually cannot be realized. I like it when people dream small and put into practice what they dream”.

And for the Church? “What Pope Francis said about bringing the poor to the center of our lives. I hope our Church becomes simpler, poorer. And that it welcomes everyone without judging”.

*Journalist for «Credere» and «Jesus» (San Paolo periodicals)

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