A Nigerian Catholic nun participating in marriage and family therapy program at Bethel Seminary, United States, Nkiruka Okafor, has been awarded a $15,000 education grant from the Margaret McNamara Memorial Fund(MMMF).
Nkiruka is one of 34 women from developing countries to receive the grant, approximately N30 million in value according to current exchange rates.
The family therapy student said the news left her very excited.
“I jumped up several times and started dancing,” Okafor was quoted as saying in a report on Bethel website.
The Director of the marriage and family therapy program, Tina Wiens, described her as a ‘determined’ student.
“Nkiruka is determined to open up space for all people to experience dignity and wholeness,” Wiens said in the report..
“She understands people in their full context and strives to create ways of being with others that honors God.”
Okafor, who was born and raised in Awka, Anambra state of Nigeria, will use the grant money to pay the tuition for her last year at Bethel Seminary.
She hoped to return to Nigeria to continue her work there with commercial sex workers and prison rehabilitation for women.