The Sisters Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick came to Cameroon in 1976. Their mission may be summed up as sisters “caring for the sick, the old and the poor”. They are the religious face of the Church. They are engaged in devotions and spiritual leadership in hospitals.
The Sisters Servants of Mary are from Madrid, Spain. They have been in Widikum since 1986. Their Foundress is Maria Soledad. Their main mission is to cater for the sick wherever the sick are, especially terminal cases. In Widikum, their patron of the hospital is St. Joseph.
The Sisters are of the consecrated life. They have a Juniorate to tend to the temporarily professed Sisters. They have two health units. A hospital is located in Widikum and a health center in Kwafong to serve the people of the Menka area since the Widikum hospital is too far to serve the people of Menka. In constructing a health center in Kwafong. Vaccinations are sporadically done in Diche 2. The mission of the Sisters is to provide Home Health Care, where possible.
Sisters Servants of Mary, Ministers of the sick are the physical and spiritual healing part of the St. Mathias Parish. With their headquarters in Madrid, Spain, the Sisters settled in Widikum since 1986. Here, they live the mission of their Foundress, Mary Soledad. In Widikum, the Sisters do far more than care for the sick. They feed the poor and educate children from poor homes. Education does not fall within their mission but the Sisters cannot close their eyes and see children waste. And so, they sponsor children from Nursery School through University. There are almost fifty children that the Sisters Servants of Mary pay their tuition and provide other physical needs, yet preserving the dignity of these families. All services offered by the Hospital are free but patients are charged for drugs as well as for medical equipment used for diagnosis and laboratory tests provided. The Rev. Sisters depend solely on charity to carry out their humanitarian services.
The Sisters also recruit girls for the Convent. Covent or not, they counsel the girl child about the good Christian life. Counselling has reduced pregnancies and HIV-Aids among the youth quite significantly.
Sometimes the Sisters go through pain, the pain that they live in a community that doesn’t understand them but are consoled that even Christ Himself wasn’t accepted or understood by His own people. These low moments don’t stop the Sisters from giving more and more to the Community from resources Divine Providence makes possible. Sometimes, as one of the sisters says, “we wonder how we would survive or get food to feed those they are caring and catering for. Then from nowhere, God provides the answer, someone somewhere in the world is touched. God has answered”.
The more you give, the more you receive. The Sisters give their all through prayers and action and for 164 years, when Mary Soledad began to treat God’s people for free, God has continued to provide the means, through His people, to serve His people for free.
CONTACT
St. Mathias Parish, PO Box 2, Widikum, Momo Division, NW Region, CameroonParish Priest:: Fr. Marcel Emeribe, Telephone (+237) 679 852 810 or (+237) 670 462 358
Email:: meribechibu@gmail.comCurate:: Fr. Bartholomew Odi Ndjengue, Telephone (+237) 696 371 345 and (+237) 676 428 925