Hope for the future

Marymount school for girls in Malawi provides young women with equal opportunities through education, preparing them to impact their society

By Fr. Jim McGuire, S.F.M.
December 2007

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Students at Marymount are enthusiastic about learning and about their future.

When I arrived in Mzuzu three years ago I was asked by Bishop Joseph Zuza to be chaplain at Marymount Secondary School. I accepted with some trepidation knowing that I had no previous experience as a school chaplain and aware of the generation gap between me and the students. I was challenged nevertheless and excited at the invitation to begin a new kind of missionary work.

Marymount is a prominent boarding school for girls in Malawi with a population of 650 students. The school was founded in the 1960s by the Missionary Sisters (MIC) from Montreal to help provide equal opportunities for girls in Malawi. Traditionally in African society boys are given an education to prepare them for life as leaders and breadwinners; girls are more often kept at home to do the work and they usually marry at an early age.

As a result, women are destined to a life of serving with little freedom and no participation in the running of the country. Gender equality is accepted in principle as a goal for the country but it is still far from being realized in practice.

As the school chaplain, Fr. Jim McGuire sows the seeds of the gospel message in their hearts and minds.

Schools like Marymount give us hope for the future. The next generation will be different with educated women in positions of authority and power. We already have graduates in government positions; others are teachers, social workers, nurses, doctors and business people. Their influence is being felt in society; there is now more concern for the poor, for people suffering with HIV/AIDS, and for the orphans who have lost parents because of the disease. These and other human sufferings are often overlooked in a male dominated society. The empowerment of women makes a difference. As Oprah Winfrey declared recently at the opening of a new school she funded for girls in South Africa: “When you educate a girl you change a nation.”

As chaplain at Marymount, I am in a position to sow the seeds of the gospel message in the minds and hearts of these young women. We discuss important Christian and human values in our religious education classes, liturgies and other gatherings. The students who belong to various churches and religions long for a world where everyone is equal and where there is no more discrimination because of race, gender and religion. Africans are aware of the terrible injustice perpetrated on their ancestors in the past—evils such as the slave trade, colonialism and the apartheid system. Nelson Mandela describes the two greatest evils in our time as “the obscene inequality that exists in the world and the vast poverty.”

I am delighted to be working with young people as I grow older. Pope John Paul II in his old age was very enthusiastic about youth and loved the World Youth Days. He recognized that young people are the hope of the future. Both young and old “dream dreams and see visions.” We can be certain that tomorrow will be better than today.

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