Sr Monica’s top Africa role with the MMMs

THE giant International Missionary Training Hospital on Drogheda’s northern perimeter is a powerhouse of activity which appears, at times, to be everexpanding.

Corridors, like long shining tentacles, lead off from every direction and floor is tiered upon floor uniting into a massive complex, which, despite its size, is run with precision-like efficiency.

The task of running this huge hospital is not an easy one, and the load is spread on many shoulders. Up until 1968 last a very considerable part of this work was handled by a young Tipperary-born nun, Sr. Monica Prcndergast, who is now back in Drogheda on a well-earned holiday. Sr. Monica was for some years the, matron and, as such, was one of the best known members of the community locally.

Then in 1969, life took a big turn and she set off to Africa to engage in missionary work, on which the M.M.M. is founded, and for which it is world renowned. Her destination was Masaka in Uganda on the Equator, where the M.M.M.’s were running a general hospital with a nutrition unit attached for the care of children suffering from various types of malnutrition.

Sr. Monica thrived on the life. So much so that, in July last, she was appointed Regional Superior for three countries — Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia — an area covering some 786,000 square miles.

With such a vast area under her supervision, Sr. Monica’s task is an immense one. During the next four years she will have to personally get to know all the nuns and staff in the various hospitals and out stations in this huge tract of land. And, of course, she will be endeavouring all the time to improve facilities in each of the units.

Her main form of transport will be a landrovcr, but when the occasion demands she sits in as passenger in a plane piloted by one of their own American Sisters, or mount a mule.

In Ethiopia, the Medical Missionaries keep their own small stock of horses and mules for transport through the more remote areas, and often the patients to their clinics arrive on the back of mules.

Medical Officer for this entire area is Dr. Patrice O’Leary, who for some time was Medical Superintendent in Drogheda.