Holy Family Sisters of the Needy

Our Apostolate

Holy Family Sisters of the Needy
Is a religious institute that was founded in the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri on 19th March, 1983 by Very Rev. Fr. Dennis Mary Joseph Ononuju, CSSP. Prior to the inception of this religious institute, Our Fr. Founder who was then the parish priest of St. Paul's Catholic Church, Owerri devoted much of his time to care for, feed and cloth the poor and destitute people around him. His life-long care for the poor and people in difficult condition was heightened by the plight of South Easterners of Nigeria in the post civil war. The predicament manifested in extreme poverty, hunger and starvation, unwanted pregnancy through rape, ignorance and quest for sheer survival. Abandonment of babies and child abuse etc. were rife.

It was in the bid to alleviate the problems of the poor that our Fr. Founder felt moved by the Holy Spirit to found the congregation of the Holy Family Sisters of the Needy in order to attend to the victims of some of the societal ills as mentioned above and the less privi leged by alleviat ing thei r immediate problems, help them to be self-reliant and thus offer them opportunity for a brighter future. Beyond this, the sisters assist them to work for their salvation and love Christ who is poor. Consequently, the Holy Family Sisters of the Needy run centres and homes to shelter, cater for and rehabilitatethe motherless, the poor, the destitute, orphans, handicapped, homeless aged men and women, teenage unwed mothers and girls in difficult situation.

Since the inception of this institute, it has successfully rehabilitated more than one thousand (1000) young people. Beyond this, the members of the institute embark on medical and educational services, which aim at assisting their clients and others in need. The work, which our Founder started in the South Eastern Nigeria, has spread to other parts of the country and beyond.

The Charism
of the Institute is to safeguard the rights of the unborn child, rehabilitate the unmarried mothers, pastoral care to the Poor and Needy, to alleviate their problems with particular attention to their spiritual well-being.

The Spirituality
of the Institute is that of St Theresa of the Infant Jesus: Simplicity and child-like confidence in our loving God.

Motto:
I shall gladly spend and be spent for the poor and needy.

Our Commitment:
As members of the Holy Family Sisters of the Needy, we strive to grow in a deeper love relationship with God through personal and communal prayer and through our vows of celibate chastity, poverty and obedience. We generously serve God's people especially the poor and needy being aware that we, too, are among the needy people of God who depend on His Divine Providence. We share our gifts, our vision, prayer, life and love with one another through our communal life We make all we doa Work of evangelization: proclaiming the good news, forming Christian community, and contributing to the transformation of the human society in whose life we share.

Mission Statement:
To alleviate or at least to reduce to the barest minimum the hopeless and inhumane conditions of the poor and the needy by caring for them both spiritually and materially, and helping them as much as possible to become self-reliant so that Christ's message of salvation can easily and truly penetrate and permeate their lives.

The apostolate of the institute is of two fold; internal and external. The internal consists in helping the members to achieve holiness of life and to bear true witness to a life consecrated to God while the external apostolate is the practical works of charity directed to other people especially the suffering poor and destitute of the society.

The institute has made tremendous contributions to the Church in Nigeria in many facets especially in the area of pro-life apostolate, rehabilitation of young girls in difficult situations, assistance to numerous helpless children, Education of the young, pastoral services, catechesis and evangelization, spiritual and material assistance to the poor and needy people of God. The sisters ensure that the lives of the unborn child who would share in the mystical body of Jesus after birth through baptism are safeguarded. Besides, the members are committed to helping their clients gain salvation, become true members of the body of Christ and witnesses of the gospel.