As the world joins the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi (LSOSF) to remember the 67 years since death of their foundress, Mother Mary Kevin Kearney on 17th October 1957, many health, education and other institutions founded purely on humanitarian grounds by the Irish philanthropist continue to stand out as clear testimonies of her signature love for mother nature.
Over decades, these institutions have been key to the very progress of mankind, and although many people do not take time off to inquire how these institutions came into existence, the unchangeable fact remains that, had it not been for the divine calling to the woman of God, currently a Servant of God, Mother Kevin who made her maiden step on Ugandan soil at Munyonyo in 1903, there would be no progress stories today being retold over and over again.
Until a few years back, today, mention of places like Nyenga and Buluuba would drive cold shivers, fear and resentment down the spines of many people, as the two places were only synonymous with the then dreaded leprosy disease.
Like the biblical writings where lepers are said to have carried around bells to sound their arrival, in the past it was taboo to enter, let alone mention these places because of the trauma attached to them.
In an interview at Buluuba hospital, a retired nurse 68-year old Sr. Maria Fortunate Ebibonwa said among the challenges they face is that some patients still have the Mother Kevin hangover of getting services readily, fast and freely, and medical staff have the task of convincing them that things have changed, calling for a reasonable pay.
She said that besides patients from across the border in Tanzania, the DR Congo and South Sudan, their catchment area is mainly the lake shores where people live in free style with not much attachment to required health standards, hence being very vulnerable to diseases.
The situation was so bad that it trickled down even to family members to the extent that it was not uncommon to hear children from such homes sidelined with such comments like ‘Abaana b’omugenge baabo’ (there go the leper’s children). As a way of circumventing this situation, Mother Kevin got the idea of setting up a school for such children.
One may be interested to learn that the Nursing Officer for Buluuba Hospital in Mayuge district, the 70-year-old Rose Nanyonga is an alumnus of this school as she was herself a daughter of a father suffering from leprosy.
Namilyango Junior Boys’ School Shines Again in Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Writing Competition
After starting up schools and hospitals in Nsambya, Naggalama and Nkokonjeru, Mother Kevin proceeded eastwards to Mbulamuti and opened up schools and hospitals in Kamuli in 1914. Because of sleeping sickness caused by tsetse flies, she proceeded to Buluuba in 1932 after the land on which Nyenga Leprosy Centre was built became inadequate.
Nyenga Leprosy Centre, currently St. Francis Nyenga Hospital also under the management of the Little Sisters of St. Francis is located in Buikwe district.
Records put it that the cultural leader of Busoga (Kyabazinga) at that time gave Mother Kevin land for the Buluuba project in present day Mayuge district, and this marked the beginning of the most outspoken leprosy centre in the country. It was then called St. Francis Leprosy Centre but has been re-christened St. Francis Hospital – Buluuba.
Nursing Officer Nanyonga explained to Kyaggwe TV that the dark picture painted by the old name may still exist among a few uninformed people, but those who have successfully sought new life know that the hospital is a source of new hope in the form of curing fever, cancer, tuberculosis, and other ailments, and to those seeking care in maternal health, immunisation, HIV/AIDS treatment and counselling and a host of other problems.
“I studied in a primary school in the centre up to 1970; it was exclusively a leprosy centre and my dad was at times in contact with Mother Kevin right from the time of setting up the hospital in 1934 in a small grass thatched mud house,” she narrated.
The patients Mother Kevin started off with in Nyenga travelled with her to Buluuba because they had been rejected by communities, and this explains why many patients from faraway places like Masaka, Luweero and beyond ended up buying land around the hospital and becoming permanent settlers even after healing. Many have however since died off from other natural causes as Nanyonga narrates.
This, according to Nanyonga, earned Buluuba the name of ‘Leprosy Village’.
Through intensive sensitization however, the disease was slowly demystified as communities saw patients getting completely healed, albeit with parts of their bodies deformed or wholly eaten away.
With acquisition of modern drugs, it became unnecessary to continue confining patients in hospital wards and today there are only six inmates (three men and three women) who are still in the hospital on their own accord but not under treatment.
Nanyonga said these aged survivors of leprosy were disowned by not only their communities after totally healing but also their family members who abandoned them in the hospital ever since.
Our reporter talked to 3 of these. Mzee Kaligumba who hailed from South Sudan, came as a casual labourer at Kakira sugar cane plantation.
When asked about personal background, he had this to say: “I came around 1950 but I do not know my age and I cannot tell where my relatives are or who they are.” He stopped working after losing his fingers and toes to leprosy.
The 86-year old Jamada Kajura came from Balawoli sub-county in Kamuli district and says his known relatives are three sons and a daughter who have abandoned him in the hospital.
He says he is only attached to his 11-year-old son, whom he sired to a woman after he had been discharged from the hospital. Unfortunately, the mother of this son of his died forcing him to go back to hospital. The boy who was not present at the time, Kajura said he had gone to school in the outskirts of the hospital and getting provisions from the hospital.
He is worried about the future of this boy saying if God decides to take him (death), he will remain in the world alone, without anyone to take him on.
Steven Mavutama aged 84, a Congolese national, came to Uganda in 1972 as a sugar cane cutter, and contracted leprosy in 2001. He said he went to a health unit at Bugembe where he was given some drugs, told to go back home and come back if his condition worsened.
Some Good Samaritans directed him to Buluuba where he was admitted and subsequently healed. Asked about his family, Mavutama said he left everybody in Congo and currently he cannot establish who is still living and who is dead.
Nursing Officer Nanyonga told our team that today, there are still about 180 remnants of people with the disease but that it is a situation that is not contagious, and they safely stay with their families. They however continue to get drugs from the hospital.
As it is, the legacy of Mother Kevin lives on and all Ugandans, Catholics or not, believers or unbelievers alike, we all have a duty to join hands with the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi in remembering Mother Kevin for the struggle she lighted in the fight against leprosy and other diseases.
In an earlier interview at St. Philomena Child Care Centre at Bukoyo in Iganga district, Jinja Regional Mother Superior Sr. Immaculate Assumpta Namagembe said Mother Kevin had a spectacular interest in improvement of children’s nutrition, and set up a health unit with domestic science section at Budini.
Family of Ugandan Maid Who Died in Saudi Arabia Awarded sh250m
Emphasizing Mother Kevin’s concern for the girl-child’s health and education, Sr. Namagembe said that on arrival at Bukoyo, she began with a girl’s school with a bias in cookery with the target of improved nutrition especially for children.
She pointed out that Mother Kevin strictly looked at encouraging girls to get prepared for nursing so that in future they would handle community-related diseases in addition to cookery and nutrition.
The Little Sisters of St. Francis joined by the rest of the members of the community will on October 19, 2024 gather at Nkokonjeru, the congregation’s headquarters to commemorate the 67 death anniversary of Mother Kevin. The general public is therefore called upon to join in so that they can present their prayers through Mother Kevin for favours and healing.