It is about showing God’s love, not preaching about it

Sr Patricia Speight has an unusual problem for a missionary — sometimes the faith of those she serves is a little too strong.

As founder of the Love and Hope outreach and support centre for families affected by HIV/Aids, one ofher biggest concerns is getting people to stick with their medication.

She tells of one HIV positive mother, not an atypical case, who wasn’t giving her newborn baby the essential drugs supplied to her to prevent the virus developing in the child.

“She said: ‘This child is a gift from God. Nothing is going to happen to this child because God will protect him.’ You have to be careful with people’s beliefs. You say, yes, every child is a gift from God but God entrusts you to protect them too.”

That’s just one example of the challenges Sr Patricia, a Franciscan sister, faces every day in the slums of her adopted home of Nakuru, Kenya, where extreme poverty means few people can afford healthcare and most are unfamiliar with hospitals and drugs so the notion of preventative medication, and its sometimes unpleasant side effects, can be particularly puzzling.

Helping people to understand and trust the efforts being made to help them takes time, patience, a lot of reassurance — and sometimes a little song and dance.

“People with HIV/Aids can feel they are worthless, they feel that God does not love them, many feel that they have done something very bad in their lives.

“To see people coming into their home full of energy and caring lets them know they are not abandoned. God has called me to be here so God has not abandoned them. I would be dancing with the people in their homes and singing with them. It breaks down the walls.

“When we go into a home the people often say you have given us love and hope today. That means an awful lot to the staff and it means an awful lot to me.”

The centre has around a dozen staff and their task is enormous. Kenya has a serious HIV/Aids problem and the Love and Hope centre helps some 3-4,000 people at any one time through its outreach, education, testing, drug distribution and palliative care programmes.

Trócaire funds the facilities and the Clinton Foundation provides the drugs, but there is always a shortfall and always more that could be done — Sr Patricia recently added a cancer support service to her workload — so the support of World Missions Ireland and the local fundraisers Sr Patricia’s family organise are invaluable.

“The people in Ireland are very, very good, and I know now during this time of recession it’s not easy. People apologise and say it’s only a little they’re giving but here in Kenya it means a lot.”

Sr Patricia’s journey to Kenya began when she was just six years old and a prescient Dominican nun in her native Belfast gave her a little African doll, a gift she still treasures today, 55 years later.

By the age of 16, she already knew for sure she would do missionary work and though she went to England to train as a nurse first, Africa was always her intended destination.

“I was called to bring the Gospel to people. I don’t mean it in the sense of converting anyone. I am not trying to change their religion.

“We would be with people of all religions and all different sects. I don’t preach about God’s love — I show God’s love.”