Sisters of the Child Jesus

According to the statistics of January 2005 there are 230 sisters. The Institute has 57 houses. Being an active Institute of Diocesan Right the sisters are involved in pastoral work, teaching, nursing and involved in pastoral projects that address the needs of the poor and vulnerable groups like women and children. However, in the last General Chapter (2001) one of the major recommendations was to take concrete steps towards becoming of Pontifical Right. This is being carried out by the present leadership team.

The SJI Motherhouse is in Gweru diocese at Driefontein mission. The newly established Generalate is in the city Gweru. The sisters work in the diocese of Gweru and Masvingo. There are SJI sisters in the archdiocese of Harare working under the different commissions of the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The SJI sisters wound up a mission that the congregation was undertaking in the Diocese of Quelimane in Mozambique in 2003. Since 1989 the SJI sisters have been giving formation to the “Sisters of our Lady of the Visitation”. This is a newly Founded diocesan congregation of that diocese. The new congregation had its first General Chapter in January 2003 and elected its first Superior General. The SJI sisters eventually pulled out in April.

The SJI sisters have opened a community in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo and in the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in the United States of America in West Virginia. January 2004 the congregation sent sisters to the diocese of Chimoio in Mozambique for missionary work.