Missioners
Sister Bitrina Kirway
| "Mission is wherever you are. The most important thing is the sharing of life. The more you share, the more you receive." |  |
Sister Bitrina Kirway first thought of becoming a religious Sister as a young girl in Tanzania. She told no one about her dream. Then she was put in a class taught by a Maryknoll Sister at her Tanzania grade school, and she began to discover more about life as a Catholic missioner. Later, she could not keep her desire a secret anymore.
"What helped me to feel I wanted to become a Maryknoll Sister are Maryknoll Sisters themselves," Sister Bitrina remembered during her Orientation period. "I have seen how they related to different groups of people."
Sister Bitrina's family lived alongside Maryknoll Sisters in northeast Tanzania. She watched these missioners share with local families whatever they had. That showed Sister Bitrina that she, too, had riches to give to others.
Sister Bitrina entered Maryknoll Sisters in 1988 from Nangwa Mbulu Diocese Tanzania, East Africa. She attended Nangwa Girls Secondary Schools and then proceeded to studies at Monduli Teachers Training College for two years.
Before entering the Maryknoll Sisters in 1988, Sister Bitrina taught for six years in various primary schools and an adult education programs in Tanzania before moving to England, where she studied English and third-world theologies at Sally Oak College in Birmingham.
Assigned to the Central Pacific Region as a Maryknoll Sister in 1991, Sister Bitrina has worked in various ministries in Nanakuli, HI. During her first four years there, she was a pastoral associate, director of religious education, and a youth ministry coordinator at St. Rita Parish. She later served as an advocate for abused women and children for the Child and Family Services and Outreach Program at the Leeward Shelter from 1996 to 1997.
From the parish work at St. Rita's, Sister Bitrina got to know women who had been abused, an experience that led her to advocate for victims of domestic violence and to teach ways to prevent it.
"I offer them support options and love that many times these women are not aware that they have," she said.
In Hawaii, Sister Bitrina is also building on that experience through her work at the YMCA of Honolulu. As a family services coordinator in the Communities in Schools of Hawaii project, she supports families as they work to clarify roles and responsibilities. In a way, she's emulating the very Maryknoll Sisters who were her teachers in an earlier time in Tanzania.
"I try to be helpful and hopeful in addressing family needs," Sister Bitrina said. "This approach will bring out the real issues in open conversation."
For the past eight years, Sister Bitrina has absorbed indigenous Hawaiian cultural practices through and through. In 2000, she received her bachelor of social work degree from Hawaii Pacific University. Through the Alakai Malama Academy's Leaders of Integrity program, Sister Bitrina conducted training and consultation through a unique cultural model using Hawaiian values, resulting in inter-dependence and relationship-building.
Sister Bitrina also was involved in a state prison program as part of her Hawaii ministry. She'd visit the inmates weekly for communion service and to share her reflections about daily Scripture readings.
At the General Assembly of Maryknoll Sisters in 2008, Sister Bitrina was elected to a six-year term on our Congregational Leadership Team. Read the Congregational Leadership Team Blog.
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