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ister Klara Duha is virtually the mother of hundreds of ailing children, and also the parent who enables thousands of primary, junior and senior high school dropouts in Laverna in Gunung Sitoli, Nias, to continue their studies.

“I’m just an ordinary citizen. Everything comes from God. I’m only a messenger,” she said while taking two children from Nias, Noferlina Duwa, 6, and Meryam Lawolo, 6, to be treated and receive walking aids from a donor at Prof. Dr. Soeharso Orthopedic Hospital in Surakarta, Central Java, recently.

Earlier, she accompanied Iberia Telaumbanua, 8, also from Nias, who suffered from hydrocephalus, for surgery at Dr. Kariadi Hospital in Semarang, Central Java. The donor this time was designer Anne Avantie.

“I’m showing the way instead of funding. I’m as poor as they are. But God has motivated donors to help the sick who can’t afford to pay medical expenses,” said Klara born in Bawadobara in To’ene Asi, South Nias, on May 25, 1955.

In Laverna, Klara manages an orphanage, Faomasi Santa Elisabeth, with dozens of children affected by edema, hydrocephalus, thyroiditis, and ileus (intestinal obstructions), all needing help with recovery.

Born Ijanulo Duha, she hails from a noble family of Nias. Her father, Martinus Duha, was a paramedic at a regency hospital. Her mother, Situlo Duha, was a housewife. As a child of the nobility, Klara was engaged to marry someone at birth as required by local custom. But at 11 the marriage was cancelled.

“From then on, I had the urge to serve humanity. After finishing junior high school, I decided to join the convent. My parents opposed this choice for a while, but finally they accepted it,” Klara recalled.

After nine years of training she became a nun in 1988. Later, she was assigned as head of the dormitory for novices at her alma mater. This post led her to devote her life to the relief of fellow humans in distress.

“When dorm occupants got sick, I would take them to the hospital and frequently, I paid for their drugs because their parents lived in remote areas and not all of them could afford such expenses,” she said.

One day when she went with a girl to Gunung Sitoli Hospital, she found a poor patient attempting to commit suicide.  

“He wasn’t adequately treated for want of money. In his room, I noticed some prescriptions under his pillow. I tried to buy some of the drugs he needed most. After consuming the medicines, his health started improving,” Klara said.

What she had done pushed her further toward the lives of people in desperate need of help. With her virtues widely known, many came to her to seek aid to purchase drugs. “But the convent superior forbade me from caring for the sick in my capacity as dormitory chief,” said the second child of ten.

Klara was undaunted. She grew vegetables in the garden around the dorm and sold her harvest every three months to help those in need of medical treatment and medicine. She also bred swine and sold their young as more and more people needed help.

“Some said I was crazy. But God has chosen me to do all this,” she said.

When an earthquake rocked Nias in 2005, she was so overwhelmed that she set up a health service station and public kitchen, while coordinating convent students to help quake victims. She also opened networks with relief organizations like the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI).

After the disaster, a donor from Australia, Fönali Lahagu, assisted in founding an orphanage for Klara via the Rotary Club in view of the large number of children who lost their parents and needed care. Klara’s work also moved a physician in Germany, Dr. Tjan, to donate Rp 25 million (US$2,625) a month for 85 children’s schooling in Nias. Educational aid has also come from the Rahmat Foundation in Jakarta and, the Kompas Humanitarian Fund Foundation.

“I haven’t done all this alone. What I’ve been doing is inseparable from the helping hands of fellow world citizens used by God to open the way for the relief of fellow humans,” Klara said.

While managing the orphanage, Klara also makes available the daily and educational needs of impoverished families in Nias. The head of one of the families is paralyzed and his wife lost her feet in the quake. According to Klara, they require assistance because their five children are too young to work.

“God has sent them before me and I’m prepared to do anything I can, regardless of religion and place of origin. As I’m always doing something, God, too, will always be helping me in His own way,” said Klara.

Nearing the age of sixty, Klara continues to undertake humanitarian activities, sometimes leaving Nias for cities in other regions to secure funds for people in dire need.

“I need no reward or appreciation for what I’ve done, because God has reserved this work for me,” said Klara, who is a registered member of the Order of Franciscan Sisters (OSF) in Sibolga, North Sumatra.