African Sisters Education Collaborative (ASEC)

What a year this has been! ASEC’s 25th anniversary celebration, culminating in a very successful gala at Chestnut Hill College on December 7th, 2024, was just the beginning. Recognizing the “Founding Mothers” of ASEC in such a public way really brought home for me an important lesson—the generative effects of service. These seven generous sisters had no clear understanding at the time of the eventual impact this organization would have on the lives of religious sisters in Africa; they only knew that they were mutually called to create something new as an act of service in response to the gifts they had been given by God. Yet here we are, 25 years later, celebrating the fact that the non-profit they created, ASEC, has grown exponentially and has served well over 10,000 African sisters with education, leadership training, skills development, and capacity building. This is truly an example of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes!

I witnessed another example of the generative effects of service later that same month, when I traveled to Africa to witness and celebrate the graduation of 118 Kenyan sisters from ASEC’s SLDI program. Altogether, there are now more than 4,500 African sisters who have graduated from SLDI. These alumnae are now in leadership positions in their congregations, in their sponsored ministries, in local communities and in the national and multi-national associations of sisters in Africa and beyond. They are CEOs of schools, hospitals, clinics, and many NGOs. They create jobs, win grant awards, and empower women. SLDI alumnae have launched community sustainability and improvement projects, created over 5,000 jobs in underserved and rural communities, and serve more than 850,000 people annually in places where help is most needed.

Everywhere I traveled during my stay in Africa, I saw the fruits of this program. Over and over again, smiling sisters approached to say to me “I am an ASEC alumna!” I saw them in schools, in clinics, and in social settings, and I witnessed the transformative impact of their education in their own lives and in the lives of those they serve.

A third, and most concrete example of the generative effects of service presented itself in Cameroon, where I had traveled to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of profession of Sr. Clarisse Remjika Jaiwo, SST, who is the SLDI Africa Coordinator and the ASEC Country Director for Cameroon. While I had a wonderful time celebrating this milestone event with Sr. Clarisse and her sisters, family, and friends, I was most struck by a “field trip” she took a few of us on, to visit a construction site she is overseeing. Far out in the countryside, in a location that seemed nearly inaccessible to me, on land donated by the Diocese of Kumba to the Association of Religious in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, is the beginning of a two-story compound that will eventually house and train sisters from around Cameroon who are undergoing SLDI training as well as other programs of the Association of Religious. While it looked like a primitive collection of wood, rebar, and cement to me, Sr. Clarisse was able to bring to life her vision of where the sisters would be housed, where the classrooms, computer lab, kitchen, library, and chapel would be, and how this structure would transform SLDI formation for Cameroon. Our excitement grew as she spoke. At the end, she showed us a small tropical tree that had been planted in the enclosed compound during their local celebration of ASEC@25. The tree was symbolic to that event and also served as a sign of hope for this project, which was spearheaded by ASEC staff in Cameroon and supported by ASEC alumnae and the Association of Religious. That tree was already bearing fruit!

Finally, this year has shown me the generative effects of service in my fellow ASEC board members. From gala preparation to board recruitment to committee service, fellow board members have really stepped up to the plate and provided generously of their time, their many talents, and even their treasure, to ignite hope for a bright future for ASEC during its next 25 years.