The Sisters of the Poor organization was inspired by Sister Ursula, who has been visiting Jefferson City, Missouri, for years. She comes to the middle of the United States, leaving behind the brightly painted facades of Abakaliki, Nigeria, painted to hide the reality of the poverty and disenfranchised population of the area and to reconnect with the people who support her work.
Here, in mid-Missouri, she finds her rest. She comes to recuperate, pray, receive respite, and connect with her family. During her stays in Jefferson City, she has come to know many in the community and beyond, and those connections have become like a string of lights, committed to supporting this woman who is a force of nature and indeed the hand of compassion. The Sisters of the Poor organization is made up of spiritual based people who came together to create an impact together in helping the poor through Sister Ursula.
Our organization knows Sister for her passion and tireless work for the poor and sick. We believe in her passion and her enormous smile and endless expressions of gratitude never fades. We know her for her willingness to beg in the streets to obtain the resources she needs to feed the hungry and minister to the sick and our organization was created in support of this.
The Sisters of the Poor organization has moved the hearts of so many with stories and the living sacrifice that our Board, Staff and Volunteers make. We will always welcome everyone to be part of this fantastic network of compassion through any means possible whether it be by donating or spreading the word of our work. Thank you for getting to know our organization and learning more about who we are. We are a group of hard-working, big-hearted Midwestern Missouri people in support of Sister Ursula’s work in providing food and basic supplies to people in need in Nigeria.
Health Merit Award Speech Given by the Nigeria Medical Association on Sister Ursula
CITATION FOR REVEREND SISTER URSULA IFEYINWA ANUNOBI
ON THE OCCASION OF THE CONFERMENT OF A HEALTH MERIT AWARD
BY THE NIGERIA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, EBONYI STATE BRANCH
Reverend Sister Ursula Ifeyinwa Anunobi was born in Ifite Dunu in Dunukofia Local Government Area of Anambra State. She attended her primary school at St. Mary’s Catholic School Lokoja, and thereafter proceeded to Queen of the Rosary College Nsukka, where she bagged her WAEC. Still burning with the desire to equip herself with education in preparation for the work ahead, she proceeded to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria where in 1990 she bagged a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Education) in political science. Trained as a teacher, she had a short spell in her trained vocation. But the irresistible urge to do good coupled with a burgeoning helplessness of a callous society’s inability to look after its own. This accomplished daughter of Africa, political scientist, educationist and an accomplished Reverend Sister abandoned her training as a teacher to answer a spiritual calling to help the needy, the beggars, the widows, the fatherless, the down trodden; in fact all that the society revile as dregs of the earth. Drawing inspiration from Mark 6:33-34. These are the homeless, sick and needy as in Jesus time and in John 12:8 that says that the poor are always with us and that we should feed, clothe, and cure them. She threw herself completely to accomplishing the calling. Drawing her inspiration from these holy passages which she had made her mission statement, she embarked on this mission with a single mind determination. A long time ago as a lay apostolate, she started the apostolate work with beggars at the Holy Ghost Cathedral Enugu. This humane and ebullient woman of many parts, a political scientist, an educationist, and an accomplished Reverend Sister, will beg for food and clothing items, yes, you heard me right, beg so she could feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and care for the sick. She decided to be a nun after a while and she joined the African Daughters of Mary Congregation in Abakaliki Diocese. In spite of the demise of the congregation, she continued her apostolic work of providing succor to the harassed souls of the afflicted, feeding the hungry, providing homes for the homeless, and so on. Reverend Sister Ursula Ifeyinwa Anunobi is a constant, reliable, reassuring, and indeed a recurring Northern Star at Ebonyi State Teaching Hospital where this ebullient and indefatigable daughter of our Good Lord, is seen daily helping to cure the sick, bringing smiles to the faces of widows, abandoned children, aged, and the dregs of our society. Nobody, indeed, nobody can comprehend the towering strength of Reverend Sister Anunobi and how she manages especially in the provision of blood to the less privileged patients in EBSUTH and other hospitals. The service alone had meant the difference between life and death to so many men, women, and children in our time. Ladies and gentlemen, it is to this rare gift of our Good Lord, to the world, nay Africa, nay Nigeria, Igboland, and indeed our Ebonyi State that the search light of excellence and commitment and determination and appreciation of the Nigerian Medical Association, Ebonyi State Branch has conferred on her the honor today of the HEALTH MERIT AWARD. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you all, to the good of humanity and to the Glory of God, this mother of orphans, this husband of the widows, this helper of the needy, this care giver of the sick and ebullient and indefatigable and indeed daughter of the Church, Reverend Sister Ursula Ifeyinwa Anunobi.
Nigerian Medical Association Health Merit Award
