Ghanaian Sister Saves Outcast ‘Spirit Children’ at Nazareth Home, Thanks to Archdiocesan Support
Children with anomalies in a superstitious part of Ghana are usually cast aside or killed. She nourishes them with food, education, spiritual devotion and love.
In a superstitious area of Northern Ghana in Africa, children who are deformed or developmentally disabled, twins or children whose mothers died in childbirth are seen as evil omens that will bring a curse on their village. These “spirit children” are abandoned, or in some sickening cases, ritualistically killed.
Sister Stan Therese Mario Mumuni saves their lives.
Sister Stan, as she is called, is from the town of Bawku in Northern Ghana. She entered the convent at a young age in 1994 and became a missionary in Western Africa for more than 20 years. In 2009, after returning from Nigeria to Yendi, Ghana, she founded the Nazareth Home for God’s Children to take in the “spirit children” who are found wandering and begging or come to her through priests or social workers.
“I was called by God to a religious life as a missionary to serve others. God gave me these children. This is my vocation,” she said.
There are 147 children at the home, aged 1 to 25 years, Sister Stan reported.
“My goal for the children is to give them an education, shelter, care, love and compassion,” she said. She also provides medical attention, spiritual guidance and devotion.
That mission is made possible, in large part, thanks to the generosity of World Mission Sunday supporters around the world, including across Northern Colorado. The 2026 World Mission Sunday appeal will take place the weekend of October 17-18.
Struggling with Health
“The greatest challenge is the health of the children, especially those with physical and mental challenges,” she explained. “Medicines are very expensive, and we are an hour away from hospitals.”
Nazareth Home operates without consistent power, running water, food, reliable transportation and medicine, she said.
Sister Stan does not work alone. After starting the Nazareth Home in the Yendi Diocese, she received permission from the Vatican to found the Marian Sisters of Eucharistic Love (MASEL) to provide for the children. The sisters — six in formation and seven professed sisters — assist with many duties, such as cooking, baking, feeding and caring for the children, and teaching at the Nazareth Academy school. They teach the children practical skills like baking and sewing.
The sisters also help Sister Stan in instilling Catholic values by maintaining the chapel and presiding over Masses, prayers and devotions, she said.
“With Adoration, prayer, Mass, catechesis, compassion and forgiveness, they will be strong children of God,” she said, adding that Ghana is only about 13 percent Catholic.
Nurturing these “spirit children” is not only a mission but a passion.
“I see the reflection of God’s love in the faces of the children every day,” she reflected. “We are a family where each child is made in God’s image. God’s grace flows through them with love, mercy, gratitude and compassion for each other.”
And her mission has bred success.
Seeing the Children Flourish
One child named Sarah who came to Nazareth home did not speak, Sister Stan said. Sarah lived in a village where people were dying. Because of her inability to speak, Sarah nearly lost her life when she was blamed for the deaths and accused of witchcraft.
“She came to Nazareth Home and is now in high school and doing very well,” Sister Stan said.
Another child, Elizabeth, came to Nazareth Home at age 8, Sister Stan said.
“She had a physical deformity of one leg and was rejected by her family,” she remembered. “She has done very well, is now in high school and would like to study business.
“The older, bigger kids help take care of the little younger kids, as we are one family,” Sister Stan said. “The two first and oldest children, Samuel and Alice, have gone on and completed high school, completed their one-year government service and are now back at Nazareth Home helping me with the children and various management duties.”
Beyond seeing them flourish, Sister Stan wants to remove the stigma and fear around “spirit children” and integrate them into society. She is making progress.
“As the children grow, go to school and gain the necessary independence, the local community can see firsthand how well they are doing, and no harm has come to any of us at Nazareth Home,” she explained.
Doing God’s Work
Caring for these abandoned children takes both hard work and an emotional toll, so Sister Stan turns to prayer to keep herself going every day.
“I offer it all up to God. I am doing God’s work, and I give my worries totally to God,” she said. “God called me to serve the poor and vulnerable. My strength comes from God’s graces.”
Doing God’s work is not just about caring for the children. She also must maintain Nazareth Home with help from donations and parish appeals. She does not receive government assistance. Her goal is to complete a new building for our “forever home children” (those who reach the age of 18 can no longer live with the younger residents) and cultivate a farm to grow their own food, “which is very expensive,” she said. She also wants to establish a medical clinic “to help provide local medical care with special medicines for seizure patients and malaria treatments.”
A Colorado Connection
Her parish appeals in the Archdiocese of Denver and other fundraising activities have brought her to Colorado for at least 10 years, and she has made lasting connections.
One Fort Collins family, the Buckendorfs, helped secure surgical help through Children’s Hospital in Denver for one of the Nazareth Home children, and Pete and Margaret Long — also in Fort Collins — have become friends who host Sister Stan when she is stateside.
With Pete’s retirement, he and Margaret were finally able to accept Sister Stan’s repeated invitations to visit Nazareth Home last November, accompanied by one of their sons, a carpenter. They helped build about 30 hen houses and platforms with supplies from a rudimentary lumber yard and some tools. The Longs said Nazareth Home is an impressive, gated compound with a lovely courtyard, but they stayed in guest housing outside the gates.
“The children came up to me and sang and danced as a sign of welcome. It was so cool to see,” Margaret remembered. “They are all children of God and are perfect in how they present themselves. They are made in God’s image, and they are loved here and given the best life.”
“There are forces working there,” Pete added. “It’s very real, and you feel the love from the children when you meet them.”
“All gifts come from God. God appreciates each one of us. He shows us mercy and gives us the graces to do his work,” Sister Stan concluded. “‘Whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do unto me (Matthew 25:40).’ We are storing treasure for ourselves in heaven.”
For more information on the Nazareth Home for God’s Children, visit www.sisterstanschildren.org.
