Irish nun Patricia Speight turns slum despair into fountain of love

When Sister Patricia Speight from Belfast in Ireland received a phone call from her congregational leader to go for missionary work in Africa in 1989, little did she know she would one day land in Kenya.

Her first missionary journey took her to Regina Coeli Mission in Zimbabwe where she worked as a nurse cum midwife in a hospital. She took care of HIV positive people. However, after four years in Zimbabwe she came to Kenya.

And when she arrived in Kenya more than two decades ago, she had no idea what the needs of residents of informal settlements in Nakuru were.

“I was asked to go to Nakuru in Kenya and address the needs of the people I had never met. I had no idea what their needs were,” she recalls.

HIV/AIDS

When she arrived in Nakuru in 1997 many people were dying of HIV/Aids. Her first friend in town Ms Genevieve Oloo introduced her to some of the most dangerous informal settlements in the town that are known to be hideouts for criminal gangs.

But that did not deter Sister Patricia from pursuing her dreams. Some residents referred to her as “HIV sister” because she offered home based care to those who were dying of HIV/Aids-related ailments.

“My joy is to pass a little spark of love to the less fortunate,” she said.

She added: “You don’t need money to begin something, all you need to bring into the life of the suffering is love, joy and compassion. Things that money cannot buy will make a difference to their suffering.”

Sister Patricia, says her most horrifying experience in the slums was seeing an HIV-positive woman die on a rat-infested bed. This ignited her determination to find a solution to their suffering.

ABANDONED

“Each day we would meet at our convent and move from door to door teaching family members how to care for their loved ones,” she recalls.

She added: “In the early days having HIV/Aids was hell on earth. I journeyed with some of the sick until they died.”

She saw abandoned victims of HIV/Aids dying in small dingy rooms with no help.

Amidst filth in the slums, the jovial Irish sister mingled freely with Bondeni, Kaptembwa, Kwa Rhonda, Flapak, Free Area, Mwariki, London, Hilton and Nyamaroto slums residents where she works. She helps the poor, battered women and abused children.

She helps the less fortunate access medical care as they battle poverty and diseases. With the help of volunteer, she started empowering slum dwellers.

And what started as a simple home based care programme at St Daniel Comboni Hekima at Kaloleni Estate has birthed Love and Hope Centre located in Section 58 Estate, some five kilometres from Nakuru town. Home based care is today under Dominican Sisters.

SEXUAL ABUSE

Run by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, the facility has expanded its services and helps girls and women who have been sexually abused to deal with the trauma.

Sister Patricia is the founder and director of Love and Hope Centre that is a sanctuary for battered girls and women. The centre was opened on October 6, 2007.

“Love and Hope Centre’s main goal is to ensure girls and women in Nakuru slums are protected from violence, abuse and HIV infection,” Sister Patricia told the Nation on Friday.

She says she has no regrets about helping abused girls and battered women.

“Working in the slums gives me an opportunity to realise the true human nurture,” she says.

“Being associated with the battered girls and women in the slums after recovering from trauma makes me happy.”

Sister Patricia, 67, is on a campaign to change the lifestyles of the survivors by providing vocational training opportunities for more than 300 women.

The women undergo short courses in dressmaking, beauty, hairdressing, catering and hospitality. The centre also offers counselling services and day care services for terminally ill people.

She says she named the centre Love and Hope because this is what God called her do for Him and His people in Nakuru.

SECOND HOME

“God asked me to give his love and hope to all people whom He had sent me to serve as Franciscan Missionary Sister for Africa,” said Sister Patricia who has made Nakuru her second home since1997.

“When I return to Kenya after my holiday in Ireland, I usually tell my relatives that I’m going home,” she said.

Sister Patricia who joined the convent at the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa in Mount Oliver, Dundalk in Ireland at the age of 24, loves chapatti and dengu (green grams.

“I also love roasted maize sold in the streets,” she said.

The second born in a family of 13 says she grew up in a poor family in Ireland.

“My parents could not afford to send me to university after high school and I was forced to work to pay my university fees at the age of 16,” she said.

She wants to be remembered not for what she has done but as someone who brought communities together. Love and Hope Centre employs social workers, counsellors and nurses.

Love and Hope Centre Programmes Coordinator Sarah Kamau describes Sister Patricia as a “determined, inspiring and a transformative person.”

THE NEEDY

“I have never met someone full of love, joy, simplicity and out to tackle the needs of the poor and neglected like Sister Patricia in my life,” said Ms Kamau.

Although she does not say how much she has spent on the establishment, it runs into millions of shillings.

She raises the money from well-wishers in Kenya and her motherland. This has made people to nickname her “the begging sister.”

She says prayers and her relationship with God keeps her going. She admits running the centre is not a walk in the park due to financial challenges.

She attributes her success to team work and support from Bishop Maurice Muhatia of Catholic Diocese of Nakuru and a volunteer board of directors led by Dr Benedict Osore.