Local nun honoured for 70 years of work in Sierra Leone
Image 1 of 7
Sr Teresa McKeon with the Irish ambassador to Sierra Leone, Aidan Fitzpatrick.Image 2 of 7
Sr Teresa with Michael Walsh and Michael McKeon.Image 3 of 7
Sr Teresa with her father Michael McKeon in 1954.Image 4 of 7
Sr Teresa in the 1960s on the boat to Freetown, Sierra Leone.Image 5 of 7
Sr Teresa with her father Michael and sisters Maura and Gretta, in the 1960s.Image 6 of 7
Sr Teresa McKeon with the Irish ambassador to Sierra Leone, Aidan Fitzpatrick, family and friends.Image 7 of 7
The SL provincial accepting the Presidential Distinguished Services Award on behalf of Sr Teresa McKeon in Dublin.An Irish nun who has worked in Sierra Leone for 70 years has received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award for her work in education and the development of women.
Sr Teresa McKeon, a native of Rockfield, Streamstown, was born on November 6, 1929. She arrived in Freetown by boat in 1954, having being one of the first women to complete an honours maths degree in University College Dublin.
Sr Teresa has spent her life advancing the education welfare and rights of thousands of girls and women across Sierra Leone.
Her experience includes a number of positions, including teacher and principal at St Joseph Secondary School, 1954-1974 and province leader, 1975-1983. In the area of development, Sr Teresa worked with rural women in Dambala between 1986 and 1994.
She had to flee to Guinea in 1995 due to the civil war and she worked in refugee camps in Guinea in 1995-2000. At Kono, a rural location in Sierra Leone, Sr Teresa worked with returnees in the Lumpa displacement camps. Also in that region, she helped train lactating mothers to make high protein food for their babies, and was involved in a micro credit savings and loan programme.
Citation
The Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny arrived in Sierra Leone to start work on January 23, 1866. Their arrival was preceded by their founder Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey in 1823 on the invitation of the then Governor McCarthy. During her visit, she worked with the freed slaves and sick people at the Connaught Hospital.
From 1866 to date – 156 years – the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny have been rendering selfless service to the people of Sierra Leone in the field of education, especially for girls, health and women’s development.
The Cluny Sisters served in schools in Bonthe Island for a number of years and one of the first Sierra Leonean sisters is from Bonthe; the late Sr Josephine Alphonsus Blake of blessed memory.
The service of the sisters to the people in education and health for the able and physically challenged continues in many areas of the country: Freetown, Moyamba, Makeni, Magburaka and Kono.
From St Joseph Secondary School, Brookfields, Sr Teresa served in administration of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny as province leader (1975-1983), coordinating the works of the Cluny sisters in Sierra Leone and the Gambia.
From there (1986-1994), she went into development work with the rural women in Dambala (20km off Bo) in the Bo District until she and her congregation of sisters had to flee from the rebels.
It was then that she sought permission from her superiors to work with the Sierra Leone refugees in the neighbouring Republic of Guinea. From 1995 to 2000, Sr Teresa and some of her Cluny Sisters lived and worked with the Sierra Leone refugee women, under-five children and young girls in the camps of Fangamandou, Katkama, Kountaya, Boreya and Massakoundu.
On returning to Sierra Leone in 2001, Sr Teresa worked with Kono returnees who found themselves in the displaced camps in Lumpa from 2001-2002.
In 2002, on the invitation of the Kono returnees, she went to Kono and continued working in Koidu, Tankoro Chiefdom, for the development of rural women through practical training in basic business and loan management, awareness education in different facets of life, education of poor marginalised children and training lactating mothers to recognise the nutritious value of local foods and fruits in the diet of their babies.
The Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny Diomplor Programme in Kono (commonly known as Diomplor) operates a primary, junior secondary and senior secondary schools known as Cluny Free The Children Schools.
Sr Teresa is still active in helping to build the capacity of the teachers and pupils in Free The Children Schools in Koidu.
Sr Teresa has been part and parcel of the Sierra Leonean people. She was awarded with the Order of Rokel in recognition of her work in the field of Education and Development in Sierra Leone 10 years ago.
Having spent most of her life here in Sierra Leone, Sr Teresa wishes to be granted a Sierra Leonean Citizenship while still retaining her Irish citizenship.
(Article by Bernadette McCormack, district PRO, Rockfield, Streamstown)