26 June, 2019

Holy Child Sister Clarence Uzogara has served as a 2018-19 panelist for The Life, Global Sisters Report’s monthly feature about the unique, challenging and very specific lives of women religious around the world.

This month she responded to the question: Are there meaningful interactions with others for you, personally, or for your community in your neighborhood? If yours is a changing neighborhood, how are you responding to the changes?

She told the story of a student named Success.

Little Success and her mother went to visit her mother’s family, a few kilometers away from her home in Delta on Dec. 13, 2018. She was really excited because her mother had promised to buy her a new dress and shoes for Christmas; little did she know her mother planned to kill her.

The mother hired a motorbike to drive them to an unknown destination, where the mother drew her knife, just like Abraham, to slay her own daughter. Luckily, the motorbike driver was suspicious when the mother told him to leave as quickly as possible, and he called some men to help him. They wrestled the knife out of the woman’s hands; otherwise, Success would have been among the forgotten dead!

When the men arrived on the scene, the poor girl was already bleeding profusely from deep cuts on her throat and other parts of her body. Success was rushed to the hospital, and as her name implies, she emerged successful. No one knows what her mum’s reasons were.

Today, Success has a new life, thanks to a philanthropist working with our school. After her discharge from the hospital, she received a scholarship. I had the opportunity of interviewing Success for admission into our renowned boarding institution for young girls.

The process of journeying with her since the beginning of this year has been spiritually and psychologically enriching. Her beautiful smiles, spirit of hard work, compassionate disposition, and most of all, this 14-year-old girl’s forgiving spirit leave me in awe each time I meet her in counseling sessions or in the hallways.

Success has really adapted to the new environment her ordeal — now a blessing — brought her: She has made new friends, and through the help of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus sisters, she has received the sacrament of baptism and holy Communion. Success says she has forgiven her mum and prays for her every day, praying that God will also forgive.

Personally, I find this very challenging, but maybe that is why Jesus said if we do not accept the kingdom of God like little children, we cannot enter therein. I can only keep reflecting: What is our little community turning into? God alone knows. I do know this was a life-transforming experience for me and for someone I have come to cherish as much as any of my other students.