To the Community of St. Francis Hospital Nsambya Training School!
With gratitude to the Lord, I would like to congratulate you upon reaching 100 years of existence in service to the Church’s mission and the nation at large! With hearts full of joy, we would like to join you in rejoicing and giving glory to the Lord who “…has been good to you” (Ps 1 16:7) and made you worthy to stand the taste of time. We may look at this Centenary as a long journey walked in a short time; yet we cannot stop praising the Lord for his providence and care that he has bestowed on the Institution.
We bless God who inspired his Servant Mother Kevin Kearney of happy memory, and other Franciscan Sisters of Africa, to found St, Francis Hospital in 1903.
Later in 1921, St. Francis Hospital Training School whose Centenary Jubilee we now celebrate was founded to meet the staffing needs of the Hospital. With time, this Institution has grown into a complex of Nursing, Midwifery and Laboratory schools dedicated to the training of highly professional health personnel, The objective of this hospital has with time also shifted from training health workers for only Nsambya hospital, to that of training health workers who are now working all over Uganda and beyond.
We are very grateful to the Teaching and Support Staff led by Sr. Stella Josephine Namatovu, LSOF, for your tireless efforts in making this institution go forward according to the mission of its founders.
We remember all those who served here and benefactors in the past years; we heartfully thank you for all your efforts which have been founding stones to the growth of this Project until today. May the Almighty God reward you abundantly; and for those who have passed on, may the Lord welcome them to rest with Him in His Kingdom.
The celebration of the success of this Institution reminds us of the cornerstone of every believer: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Prov 9: 10).
It is from God that man finds his origin, dignity and meaning, for he is made in his image and likeness (cf.
Gen 1:26); it is also in God that men’s and women’s work judged worthy of admiration and meaning! In opening up this ‘Training School, the Church who stems from the side of Christ on the Cross, through her daughters, Page 2 of 2 envisaged in helping to train men and women who would subsequently help to care and treat man in his weakness and sickness. In fact, “the Church cannot abandon man; St. John Paul J! said (Centesimus Annus, especially when s/ he is tested by sickness and physical impairment. For this reason, I would Jike to remind all our stakeholders in this project that our primary goal is to train men and women as professionals in the health sector who in their turn can give their life for those they have been called to serve.
We pay that the temptation for profits and the economic boom of today may not overrun our catholic mission and values in the work of St. Francis Nsambya Hospital Training School!
At the beginning of a new century of this Institution, while looking prudently at the successes of the past century, be encouraged to rise up and look at the present that you live in and in which you exercise your mission; that it may help you fix the gaze to the future which you are called to discern and participate in with innovation; always seeking better ways which can help Trainees and the entire School to respond to the needs of today’ man who is becoming attracted by the waves of post-modernity while always remaining vulnerable and fragile in health both in mind and in body.
Let always your goal be to train God-fearing health personnel in inline with Catholic ethic values who in their turn defend the value of life at all stages without compromise
White wishing you a fruitful celebration of your Centenary Jubilee, I entrust you to the intercession of St. Francis your Patron and St. Raphael, Archangel and Medicine of God,
Ad Multos AnnosJ.
tPauI Ssemogerere
ARCHBISHOP OF KAMPALa
