How does one live a life honestly? What is it to be a real woman? How does one pursue happiness? How do I achieve success? Is there God?[break]
These are some of the questions that this woman spent 28 years of her life in Kathmandu answering for her students in St. Mary’s School, Jawalakhel. For Sister Maria, who came to this convent school in 1982, found true happiness and satisfaction in guiding girls to become real women – women of strength, character and conviction.
“I enjoy teaching and I found real joy in doing that,” she said.
Although she taught English with perfection, her value education classes became famous over the years. It was during the lectures and interactions in the value education classes that girls shared their bad and good experiences, their grievances, their frustrations and hesitations. Sister Maria always addressed their problems. Her ability to listen with patience, evaluate the girls’ problems and give them the right advice brought her close with hundreds of St. Mary’s pupils. She became a true friend, a philosopher and a guide, especially to those who underwent Leadership Training Service (LTS), a program she started 25 years ago.
Sister Maria did not stop there. Along with other CJ (Congregation of Jesus) Sisters of St. Mary’s, she too followed the footsteps of the founder, Venerable Mother Mary Ward, in assisting to establish the Mary Ward school to educate children who come from less fortunate background of the society. The school was run in the St. Mary’s premises initially in the early 1980s, but a separate school was founded in 1986 in Jhamsikhel and later in Lubhu in 1991.
The schools also operate outreach programs through which adult literacy programs and tailoring classes are given to poor women. The two schools accomplished this by empowering girls and women to attain a status in life by becoming teachers, seamstresses, office workers and good house wives.
The Mary Ward school was one of the first of its kind in Nepal. It was founded with the belief that as the dignity of life through education is the need of the time, the focus must be in educating girl children and mothers.
Sister Maria’s LTS students regularly taught in Mary Ward schools. It was she who got the St. Mary’s students involved at various activities in Mary Ward thus engraving a sense of social responsibility among the girls. Some of Sister’s students later run their own schools for underprivileged, old-age homes and shelters.
In serving the needy and imparting knowledge to the poor, Mary Ward schools kept the message of Mother Mary Ward alive which she gave some 400 years back. Mary Ward’s message was women should be given their rightful due and not be treated as second class citizens, inferior to men. They must be given the right to go for higher education and to choose the careers they are interested in. In addition, she believed women should be given the opportunity to discover and develop their skills so that they can be self-dependent. Then they will have the confidence to make their contribution available to society and to the country.
Sister Maria said that in order to pass on Mary ward’s legacy to the coming generation, students must be encouraged to improve their self-image and self-esteem so that they can, while having faith in God also have faith in themselves. “They (women) must be people who, wherever they are, are able to make a difference,” she said.
Sister Maria made a choice to become a nun and devote her life in service of God and humanity way back in 1954 when she entered a convent in Patna. “I had a feeling back then that I wanted to do something more. I went for a retreat,” she recalled, adding, “As I came from a spiritual family it helped me to make that choice.”
That was the choice she made to live a life of dedication and commitment. And as she is preparing to retire from teaching this year, she said, “I am satisfied with what I have done, for it is in doing small things differently that one receives joy.”
In her experience, girls have now become passive because of scientific advancement. “It has become less interesting to teach girls now as they are centered around computers, calculators and TV sets. Ethical life is missing,” she remarked. “Girls are imitating the western style now whereas earlier there were no distractions,” she said, adding, “However, the basic problems facing the teenagers over the years have remained the same.”
Sister Maria taught her students to obtain satisfaction in the life they are leading and relentlessly spoke on the need for a change of attitude of the society towards women. She even gave hope to some frustrated girls who considered attempting suicide.
“One cannot hang on to traditional practices. We must move with the time and bring a different way of looking at life,” she concluded.
Related story
Great Leadership: A Road Less Traveled
