FST Sisters
About the FST Sisters
The Daughters of the Most Blessed Trinity, alias FST Sisters, is one of the few Roman Catholic Orders native to Ghana, West Africa. The FST Sisters was founded in 1984 by Rt. Rev. Peter Sarpong, Bishop of the Kumasi Diocese, to improve the physical and spiritual quality of life for the poor in rural Ghanaian villages. FST, Filiae Sanctissimae Trinitatis, is the Latin translation for the Daughters of the Most Blessed Trinity. Their ministry is mainly in the Ashanti Region, Southern Ghana but they hope to spread to other parts of the country in future (see map below). Spiritually, they provide religious education and services for the villages they serve. Physically, they provide essential services to the poor, specifically in education and healthcare that would otherwise not available in rural areas. For example, while urban parishioners can attend daily mass as well as choose from two to four masses on Sunday, villagers see a priest once or twice a year and thus have mass only during those times. Due to the work of the FST Sisters, the villagers not only receive spiritual nourishment, but also basic healthcare and education.
The Sisters serve as teachers, nurses, psychologists, healthcare providers, midwives, catechists, seamstresses, etc. according to the needs of the people they work with (one can think of them as Peace Corp Volunteers or UNICEF Aid workers and missionaries). They aim to build schools and hospitals in the areas they serve. But, being a young order, they are greatly constrained financially and cannot train interested women to pursue their charism without your help.
Unlike other religious orders, the FST Sisters can wear two different habits. They have a regular one (i.e. Ghanaian style skirt and blouse) as worn by the nun on the front of the brochure and a Latin Rite (foreign) one, which is what the nuns are wearing in the picture at the back of the brochure. The Sisters can wear their veil in the Latin Rite or Ghanaian style.
Goal and Updates on Campaigns to Date
The Sisters aim to build an educational facility in Akokoamong. The sisters have acquired ten acres of land to build a Kindergarten through 12th grade school, a convent and chapel. The estimated cost for the total project is about $700,000.00. Phase I will focus on the 18-classroom elementary school, 6-room middle school, staff offices, a library and conference/all purpose rooms. Each class can hold up to 40 students. As of December 2006, the FST Sisters, with your help have raised about $258,175 and have been completed over 50% of the school buildings.
On November 21, 2009, the Sisters officially opened Blessed Trinity Leadership Academy, a Kindergarten through 12th grade. There are 45 students from kindergarten to Grade 1 at the moment, but the numbers will keep increasing as the school expands.
As always, the Sisters are grateful for supporting their work and mission. You can make a tax-deductible donation to the FST Sisters via the Sisters of Loretto in Colorado as follows:
Check Payable to: "Sisters of Loretto"
Memo: FST Sisters in Ghana
Address: Sisters of Loretto, 300 E. Hampden, Suite 400, Englewood, CO 80110