Province of Africa - Provincial Council

	Sisters Victoria Swanzy-Essien, Mary Kerber, Grace Okon. The first provincial council for the newly-created Province of Africa was installed on Aug. 28, 2011, in Nsawam, Ghana.

Sister Mary Kerber
Provincial Leader

During her years in Africa, Sister Mary has ministered as a secondary teacher, Catholic education adviser for secondary schools, postulant director, interim coordinator for Africa, and lecturer at St. Mathias Mulumba Major Seminary and at Tangaza College. In 2007, she was elected district leader for Africa and served in that role until her election as leader of the newly formed Province of Africa.

The second oldest of eight children, Sister Mary was raised in rural Minnesota and learned at an early age the skills of collaborative labor, as the family’s dairy farm was literally the family’s bread and butter. Sister Mary’s first four years of grade school were at a Benedictine-run parochial school in Chanhassen, Minnesota. She then attended an SSND school, St. Mary’s of the Purification. During these years, she came to know the SSNDs and decided to attend Good Counsel Academy in Mankato, Minn.

“My high school years were some of the greatest of my life,” Sister Mary says. “In retrospect, I see how truly formational they were. During this time, my attraction to SSND deepened into a call.”

Sister Mary entered the School Sisters of Notre Dame in 1969 with the desire to someday go to Africa, even though at that time, there were no SSNDs in Africa. When she was a novice, her province decided to send SSNDs to Kenya. After finishing her master’s degree at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, she was sent to Kenya in 1984. She earned her doctor of ministry degree in 2004.
 

Sister Grace Okon
Provincial Councilor-Vicar

Sister Grace has served in several ministries in Africa, including teaching in a boys’ school, helping to open a new SSND community and teaching as well as being an administrator in the SSND secondary school in Mkar, Nigeria. She also has served as novice director at the African Novitiate in Ghana.

“Working in different places has helped me to learn and appreciate others’ background and culture,” Sister Grace says. “The opportunity to serve in the novitiate is a gift to me. I have come to treasure this experience as grace-filled. Journeying with the new members in our congregation has given me a deep love for our congregation, our common heritage and charism as it unfolds in our time.”

The oldest of 10 children, Sister Grace grew up in Nigeria. She left her immediate family at the age of 12 for high school and then proceeded to college, where she studied English and education. It was in college where she met one of the SSNDs. As she inquired about the congregation, “I discovered that this was where God was calling me to.” After completing her college studies, she began her initial formation with the School Sisters of Notre Dame and made her first profession 1993 and perpetual profession in 1999.

“In all these enriching experiences, I have found myself trying to live an integrated life drawing from the depths of God’s love, who has been faithful in journeying with and sustaining me through to this time,” Sister Grace says.
 

Sister Victoria Swanzy-Essien
Provincial Councilor

For Sister Victoria, being a School Sister of Notre Dame has been exciting and life-giving. But she also has been challenged as she strives to witness to unity in diverse cultures. Since she made her profession 16 years ago, Sister Victoria has had the opportunity to participate in bonding and international programs, work with women in vocation and affiliate ministries, serve on district assemblies and minister at bedsides in wards and emergency units.

Sister Victoria grew up in the matrilineal Fanti culture in the central region of Ghana. In this area, the girl child is the heartbeat of the family and needs to be equipped to take up leadership roles in future. In her culture, Sister Victoria says, age is synonymous with wisdom, and as the eldest of two girls, Sister Victoria grew up with her maternal grandparents as wisdom figures who instilled in her strong cultural and gospel values for life.

Her schooling was adventurous, fun and future- oriented. She dreamed to be a religious and give her best in the business sector. As a result, her friends were not surprised that she became a School Sister of Notre Dame and a nurse practitioner.

“I relax with reading, cooking, visiting friends and learning how to play the guitar,” Sister Victoria says. “St. Peter Fourier is my mentor in the SSND world, and I do agree with foundress Blessed Theresa that ‘Love is the sign through which the world should be convinced that we believe in Jesus.’”