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The seed she had sown blossomed under
Nancy who was joined by Jeanne Herman, a lay
woman who had studied with Nancy in the
States, and volunteered to work for two years in
Zoko. In 1976 Eileen Curtis arrived from
Ireland to work as a nurse in the clinic, and two
years later she was joined by Teresa Malone.
From 1976 to 1981 they made a strong team and
saved many lives through the nutrition
programme, and by carrying patients from the
poor areas of Zoko and Bongo Soe to the
hospital. Because of their standing with the
nurses and doctors there they were able to get
attention for their patients.
The sisters in the clinic came into conact
with the poorest of the poor and saw at first hand
how the villagers suffered during the yearly
“hunger season”, as over 80% of the Upper East
Region are poor farmers, totally dependent on
the short rainy season which is often insufficient
for their crops. Because of the lack of good water
and before the anti-polio campaign and CIDA
project for 2,000 wells, polio and other diseases
were rampant. Unfortunately, owing to the lack
traditional methods would
frequently be applied with sad results. We read
that at a community meeting in 1979 the sisters
agreed to pay C150 for callipers for two children
at Zoko, victims of polio, from money that Mary
Taylor had given the community for charitable
purposes. They continued to receive food for
the malnourished mothers and children from the
Catholic Relief Services, and were happy if at the
next weighing the baby had improved; if it had
not, it meant that the food had not been given to
the child and they had to impress upon the
of education,
mothers the importance of this.
The services of the three expert nurses in
the convent were called upon by those who were
sick among the mission personnel, such as Fr
Ken Haskew, Bro Edwin O’Sullivan, Fr Perrault
and many others. In the journals we find people
coming for a few days to be helped back to
health. The extreme heat of Bolga and the
continuous stream of patients at their daily
clinics also took its toll on the sisters themselves,
and they too suffered from times of serious
sickness, which was not helped by the poverty of
the food available. In fact the journals speak of
various members of the community getting seri-
ously sick, so much so that by 1978 the future of
the Bolga community was questioned by the
General Council. At a community meeting at the
time it was decided that “good feeding” could
improve their health, so “one of the ways to do this
would be to get regular supplies from Ouagadougou.”
This seems to have solved the problem, so the
community survived.
After Nancy returned to the States in
1980 Eileen took over the clinic and Teresa
became the Diocesan Health Development
co-ordinator, which meant she was responsible
for the welfare of all the Catholic mission clinics
in the diocese, giving reports to those who
supported them and going to Accra for
medicines. When she returned home in 1982
Winifred Wilson came from Cape Coast to take
over from her for one year. Though in her 70’s
she put many others to shame in her enthusiasm
and energy for the work, frequently driving the
long tiring journey to Accra, like her predecessor,
to knock at the Ministry doors and collect the
much-needed medicines. From Bolga Winifred
left for her hermitage in Elmina and Eileen con-
tinued in the clinic. Now and then SHCJ candi-
dates would work with her; one was Lena
Nwaenyi for a year in 1985. Finally in 1988
Eileen was told by the doctors that she must not
return to Ghana for health reasons. Sadly, there
was now no-one to take her place to run Holy
Child Zoko clinic.
The concern for the sick and poor was
kept up by the community. Ann Schulte was very
much involved with the polio-handicapped and