An Irish based British nun has been recognised by Queen Elizabeth II of England in acknowledgment of her efforts in improving healthcare in Rwanda.Sister Helen Spragg, a pharmacist from Sheffield-United Kingdom, worked at Kirambi Health Centre in Nyanza District, Southern Province from 1997 to 2010.The community health centre is run by the Medical Missionaries of Mary, a global organisation of Catholic Sisters with religious vows.Spragg who will travel to Buckingham Palace in May to receive her medal of honour from the Queen, was also acknowledged for her decades-long commitment to social justice in Africa.Speaking to the British press, she said that she was ‘shocked and humbled’ to learn she will receive an award from Queen Elizabeth.“It came as a bit of a shock. It was a bit humbling. I suppose you could say it was shocking, humbling and exciting. The award really recognises the work of a team of which I was part,” Sr. Spragg is quoted as saying.Speaking to The New Times yesterday, Sr. Marie Goretti Nalumaga, the Director of Nursing at Kirambi Health Centre, said that Sr. Spragg deserved the honour.“During her time at the centre, she carried out people-centred development work, by helping rural people in the area set up a family planning clinic,” she noted.“She did a great job by improving the standards of living in Kirambi, by supporting them financially, spiritually and morally”.Nalumaga stated that the British nun was so compassionate and that the people in the area liked her very much.Spragg joined the Irish Order of nuns at the age of 25 when she was working as a pharmacist in her native Sheffield. She travelled to Dublin where she spent her first two years of her religious life before being transferred to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda respectively.“I suppose I joined because I was idealistic and I wanted to work with people who were on the margins. I wanted to live in a community that was based on prayer and I liked adventure,” she told the press.
