Berkley Center

Background: Sister Rose Nancy Ghati, a Kenyan Catholic sister and a member of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Anna , focuses sharply on the welfare of children and especially on the issues that link poverty and women’s welfare. She is also focusing increasingly on the community-level challenges around climate change, inspired by the papal Encyclical, Laudato Si’. She currently works with SCORE-ECD , a project supported by the Hilton Foundation, centered on early childhood development. This discussion with Katherine Marshall (by Zoom) on April 16, 2025, explored her background, motivation, and career, both as a religious sister and centered on the challenges for young children in her native Kenya. Sister Ghati outlined the different programs she has worked with, pointing to their significant impact on changing both women’s confidence and family dynamics. She spoke of the visible effects of changes in climate at very local levels, notably erratic rains, rising temperatures, and serious floods. The challenges of raising awareness, acting to give women the opportunity to thrive, and contending with political tensions go hand in hand.

"My desire is to do the best I can to empower women so that they're not left behind on issues of climate change, especially at the grassroots.'

"I simply opened my eyes, and I started seeing the small things that I could assume were affecting us. The smallest things, like just throwing a plastic bag carelessly, will affect an insect that was trying to build a home there. It will kill that insect."

Bio: Sister Rose Nancy Ghati, a Franciscan Sister of St. Anna (FSSA), holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and gender studies from Kenyatta University and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in gender and development studies from the same institution. She is a master trainer for the Strengthening the Capacity of Religious Women in Early Childhood Development (SCORE-ECD) project, based in Lwak- Siaya County, Kenya. She was a project coordinator for Changing the Way We Care, a global initiative to influence care for children, shifting away from orphanages and back to families, from 2021 to 2023. While working there, she advocated for better livelihoods for families, especially persons with disabilities. Sister Ghati is a member of the Georgetown University Women Faith Leaders Fellowship 2024-2025 cohort. Among her recent activities was a presentation during the Global Comparative and International Education Society conference in Miami: Gender dimensions in Early childhood development. Approaches to enhancing male engagement in ECD. Experiences from West and East Africa.

Can we begin with where you are now?

I am now in Siaya, where it is cool and raining! I’ve just returned from an event with the youth of our parish, the first meeting that we have had in a long time. We talked about the experiences and challenges of young people in our society, and they were eager to share their experiences, especially since many felt abandoned.

What are the kinds of issues they mention?

Among the issues they face are their mental health problems and difficulties in knowing how best to deal with technology. Family problems are common, many linked to poverty. With so many outside pressures and competing demands, family members really cannot provide for them and offer what they need. Even those who still have their parents do not communicate, so they face communication breakdowns. When the mother comes to make supper or a meal, the father walks out. So within the family, even there, can be loneliness. But they welcomed our loving approach, and they want us to continue such discussions.

I'm hoping to learn about what you are doing and where you've come from.

I am from Kenya, a Kuria by tribe, living near the Western border of Kenya and Tanzania, born and raised in a family of three, and was orphaned at the age of five. My siblings and I lived with my grandmother while we were growing up. My education was sponsored by a friend of my mother from the Netherlands (I thus owe a lot to the Netherlands). They still sponsor me for the master’s that I am currently pursuing.

I am especially concerned today about climate change and its impact on women and girls.

I inherited my passion to do something about climate change and about women, more specifically, from my mother, who was an advocate for women. She was working on the financial support and economic stability of women in society. However, I cannot recall much of her work well, as she passed when I was only five, but those who remember her and journeyed with her still speak of their memories of how passionate she was about empowering women. Thus, I feel the passion I inherited from her, the passion and desire to empower women from different perspectives of life. I desire to do the best I can to empower women so that they're not left behind on matters of climate change, especially at the grassroots level.

How does this link to your current work?

We have been dealing with women to empower them financially. I have come to focus on a branch of the issue linked to climate change. This desire to do something about climate change came because it is affecting the children, youths, and women with whom we work. We would hear tales of women lamenting for lack of food because of floods or droughts, which are consequences of climate change. I therefore, asked myself what I could do and how we could design approaches so that they both empower women and address the specific effects of climate change affecting them. I can gladly say the result of the thoughts is the focus of my capstone project for the fellowship.

We are already narrowing our focus on children and women with the practical effects of the changing climate. We have 50 women who we are training on mitigation strategies and how best to respond to the change. On how we can use agroforestry so that when it comes to nutrition, we know how best we can farm. On what we need to do to have a clean environment.

Wonderful. Can we go back a little now? How did you become a sister? When did you decide to join a congregation?

I think it's a desire that I grew up with; I always felt the urge to become a sister. However, after high school, I first joined a university to pursue a bachelor’s degree. My main intention for going to campus was to gain knowledge and experience in social work, but also to see if the feeling of being a sister would remain in me. As my parents had passed on, I faced uncertainties. I was in a boarding school all the years of my early education at a school run by sisters. I wanted to go outside the world of the sisters, to mingle with other people, and then see if the desire would persist. However, when I finished university, I felt that the wish was still in me.

As a youth, I was in a Franciscan group for young people (CHIFRA). And it’s as if Saint Francis didn't want me to leave him, or he never wanted to leave me (I can't really tell). I only sent one letter and was accepted by the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Anna, and I joined the religious congregation before my graduation. That was in November, and we were to graduate in December 2013.

What happened after that?

In 2013, I joined the aspirancy, which is the first stage of the first four initial years of religious formation.After that, I made my first profession in November 2017. Immediately after my profession, I started working with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in a program called Strengthening the Capacity of Religious Women in Early Childhood Development (SCORE-ECD), where we empower the sisters in different capacity areas, especially on early childhood development and the Holistic Organization Capacity Assessment Instrument (HOCAI). I worked with this project, SCORE-ECD, for three years. Then I moved to another program, Changing the Way We Care, where I was the project coordinator. We were working on strengthening households with children with disabilities. Then I was brought back again to SCORE-ECD, where I am today.

Does the program focus on orphans or children with disabilities?

The main focus of SCORE-ECD is on caregivers with children under three years old, thus early childhood development. What we do is to empower them. We give purely messaging; we don't really do any other things. We advocate for good climate and other areas, especially nurturing care, kitchen gardening, male involvement in the family, and WASH; thus, we tell the caregivers that we must have a clean environment, toilets, or latrines. They must have a compost pit, and those compost pits must be handled in a way that ensures that where the child is growing is a conducive area with no pollution and no dangers.

Then do you follow them after they go to school?

Yes, we make follow-ups on them. The children that I journeyed with between 2018 and 2021 just had their first pre-school graduation in 2023, which was a delight for me. We had encouraged them to study at our convent-run nursery school, which made it possible to see them growing up.

You had some experience with the global network of Changing the Way We Care. How did you relate with that global institution?

Yes, it was a good experience working with its Kenyan branch as a local implementing partner.

You have stressed your focus on climate change. How did you come to that awareness that so many of the issues you were dealing with were linked to climate? Did you read something or hear someone give a lecture, or was it what you saw with your own eyes that really sparked that passion or that interest?

The first time I heard about climate change was when I was a novice when Pope Francis wrote this letter, Laudato Si’. It was a must-read document, whether you like it or not. When I read it, it was a cry from the Pope that we have to save Mother Earth, a call that found a home in us Franciscans, since St. Francis about 800 years ago had referred to the earth as our mother. That is when this urge started growing and living forcefully within me. After my profession, I wanted to follow the inspiration. There is a global group called the Laudato Si Movement, which is trying to raise awareness on climate change. I also started reading and following the UN summit discussions about climate. So, I learned so much through observation and listening, and I asked myself how best I could respond.

Your work now is primarily focused on early childhood education. Do you meet with families every day? How does the program work?

CRS gives a target, which for now is 350 caregivers. We work to reach all these women with our messaging. The easiest way we can reach these caregivers is to form groups. There are several ECD interventions. We have what we call the integrated mother baby course or the integrated father baby. It is an intervention that trains women on how to manage their stress. Then we have another one called SMART Couples. SMART is an acronym for Strengthening Marriages and Relationships through Joint Decision Making and Planning. Then we have another one called SILC, also an acronym, for Saving Internal and Lending Communities. SILC is primarily focused on supporting sustainable interventions.

With CRS supporting the program, are they affected by the recent cuts?

No, we aren’t being affected since that the program is supported by the Hilton Foundation.

That’s wonderful work. Is this work mainly in Siaya? What are the distinctive, special problems in that region? You spoke earlier about mental health challenges for youth and issues around farming.

I have always worked in Siaya. One major issue they have (apart from the issues facing youth) is the drastic change in the rain patterns, so they can't tell when to plant. So it is a big problem, resulting in food insecurity. Another issue that we can say it is affecting Siaya is the issue of unhealthy politics, which leads to underdevelopment and poverty.

How do you feel about these tensions? You come from a minority group. Do you see the political tensions tied to ethnicity? Or other factors?

In the area I come from, we don't feel that tension so much. I think because we are a minority in Kenya, it is different. In my area, most decisions are still made by the village elders, so the politics doesn't affect us so much.

Is there cooperation among the religious groups? On anything?

Yes, there is a bit of cooperation, and in most cases, the Catholic Church always takes the lead in such initiatives.

Are there networks among the Catholic sisters in your area? Are there different orders? Do you work together, or do you mostly live in, as you said, separate countries?

Yes, there is AOSK, which is the Association of Sisters in Kenya, and we work together on some projects. For example, in the SCORE-ECD, ten different congregations are working in different parts of Kenya.

A goal we hope to support is to encourage the different orders to build networks that work for them.

I think that the institutions have yet to learn how to network with each other, because for the longest time they have been working individually. We can learn, to mingle and come together and see that we have a common goal to achieve.

A last question. In different communities, how do the issues for women come up? How is the potential for women's empowerment seen? How is this seen within the families you work with? How are women's roles defined in the house (and you described the metaphor of the house as critical)? How is it changing? How, now that we are in 2025, are young girls responding as the world changes around us?

Many of the women, even girls, we deal with have not interacted much with school, and in some families, women can't make decisions. But when we come in with the SCORE-ECD program, they can see what, especially, the smart couples, can be different. We teach them the role of every family member in decision making. Within the areas where I've worked for the last seven years, I am seeing real changes in tone and the scope of the discussions.