Board News: New Board Member

My name is Claris Zwareva. I was born in Zimbabwe and have been a Maryknoll sister for 37 years. I am an educator, a nurse, and a spiritual director. I graduated from St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing in Reading, Pennsylvania.

While in Reading, I met Sister Maura Clarke, MM, at a seminar on global awareness. During the seminar, Sister Maura offered a role playing exercise to awaken awareness of world hunger and injustice. The impression she made inspired me to join the Maryknoll Sisters  in 1984.

In 1986, I was missioned to Bolivia where I worked for 26 years in various ministries. The first two years I served in the Parish of Santa Rita and Santa Monica, a mission of the Augustinians. My focus was on health promotion and preventive education. I opened a smaller clinic associated with the Santa Rita clinic that then became Clinica Santa Monica. .

I have nostalgic remembrances of climbing the steep hills of Alto Chijini in order to reach the sick and homebound as well as to teach preventive health to women, children, and youth. Two years later, I moved to Cochabamba where I engaged in similar ministries, including Parish ministry. In addition, I took on the role of Executive Secretary of the Institute of Bioethics of the Catholic University of Bolivia.

In 2011, I went to Haiti with the Medical Missionaries, a group of doctors. My last ministry before being elected to leadership was as the Maryknoll Sisters’ main representative to the United Nations and Associate with the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns.

(See more details at https://www.maryknollsisters. org/sisters/sister-claris-zwareva/)