KARACHI, Pakistan (UCAN) -- Jessinta Fernandez lost both her parents by the time she was seven. However, she was able to continue her education and is now a teacher, thanks to the Daughters of the Cross nuns. Fernandez was one of more than 500 Catholic girls from broken families, or who had at least one deceased parent, who received care at the nuns’ Providence Home in Karachi archdiocese. The nuns and staff provide the girls with a homely environment, support their education, and in some cases, like Fernandez’s, even helped them get married. “My father died of cancer when I was one and my mother passed away six years later,” Fernandez recalled. “My uncle brought me and my sister to the home and we studied here until grade 12.” Fernandez, now a mother of two, said her future in-laws saw her at a picnic “and contacted the nuns with a marriage proposal.” She now teaches at a Catholic school, brings gifts to the girls at the home during her monthly visits, and helps raise funds for the facility. “The nuns are like my parents and the children are my ‘siblings,’” she said with a smile.
Children at the Providence Home playground |