St Andrew's and St Bride's High pupils to meet SCIAF heroine

Nov 4 2009 by Graham Mann, East Kilbride News

PUPILS from St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High will come face to face with a real SCIAF heroine when Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe visits the school next week.

Sister Rosemary, from Uganda, works tirelessly to help young girls and returning child soldiers who were kidnapped by rebel group the Lords Resistance Army during Uganda’s long-running civil war.

The conflict has been characterised by mass murder and the abduction of many thousands of young children, who were forced to become child soldiers.

Sister Rosemary is the director of St Monica’s Girls’ Tailoring Centre in Gulu, Northern Uganda, which provides free boarding and training in tailoring, cooking and business administration to around 300 girls a year, who missed out their conventional education because of the war.

At St Monica’s, they can recover from their traumatic experiences and learn the skills to earn an income and be self-sufficient when they leave.

St Monica’s has a day care centre where the children of rebel returnees can go to be looked after while their mothers are learning new skills or working.

There is also a medical centre which cares for the women and children with HIV and AIDS.

The centre also provides counselling and helps the women to get back on their feet, regain their sense of dignity and forget about their past.

In 2007, Sister Rosemary won the CNN Heroes Community Crusader award run by the American TV news channel for her selfless work helping her community through conflict and providing practical support to the young girls most affected.

Sister Rosemary is visiting St Andrew’s and St Bride’s and other Scottish schools to thank them for raising money for SCIAF, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, which funds St Monica’s Girls’ Tailoring Centre. She will also share her experiences of the war in northern Uganda and her work with young people.

SCIAF schools’ officer John Sharp said: “Sister Rosemary’s visit is a great opportunity for the young people of St Andrew’s and St Bride’s High School to get a real insight into the work of SCIAF overseas, helping young people recover from the trauma of war in northern Uganda.

“This work is, of course, only possible because schools such as St Andrew’s and St Bride’s go to great efforts to raise money for SCIAF.

Sister Rosemary will share her experiences of northern Uganda and give the students a first-hand account of how, through SCIAF, they are helping to improve the lives of many young people.”