In January 2004, the first residential bishop of the Diocese of Kumbo, Most Rev. Cornelius F. Esua met the Sisters of the Handmaid of the Holy Child Jesus (HHCJ) to open a house in the Diocese. Less than a year after this preliminary talk, the Bishop was transferred to Bamenda as the coadjutor archbishop. For over two years it looked like nothing was happening as the archbishop shuttled between Kumbo and Bamenda. Few still believed his request will come to fruition, but the request has now been transformed into a reality.
After the appointment, in July and subsequent consecration of Mgr. George Nkuo as the second residential bishop of Kumbo, on September 8, 2006, plans for the opening of an HHCJ house in the Diocese Kumbo picked up speed, a little faster than many had anticipated. Shortly after Mgr Nkuo took canonical possession of the Diocese, he renewed the contact with the congregation in February 2007. Barely six months after the contact, the bishop’s efforts have borne what many see as lasting fruits.
It was on Saturday, August, 18 that the first member of the Sisters of the Handmaids of the Holy child Jesus arrived in the diocese to begin a house in Kumbo, at the Minor Seminary. Sr. Pauline Nnanyere entered the annals of history as the first HHCJ sister to take up permanent residence in Kumbo. She was accompanied by Sr. Emilia Ogar and Ms Lucy Odom, an aspirant, from their community in Mutengene, Diocese of Buea. It would be recalled that on July 20, 2007, the Superior General of the Sisters of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, Mother Mary Langley, addressed a letter from the Generalate in Ifuho-Nigeria to the Bishop of Kumbo, George Nkuo announcing the arrival of the sisters to set up a community in Kumbo. Prior to their arrival, the congregation dispatched Sr. Prudentia Nzeribe, from the Mutengene community to prepare for the arrival of the Sisters. For three weeks, she worked hard, personally overseeing the work that was ongoing ahead of the arrival of the rest of the members of her congregation. Finally, on Friday September 14, 2007, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, at 8.30p.m, the last two sisters of the HHCJ arrived in the Diocese. They were Sister Loretta Ovwigho and Sr. Linda U. Obiakor, thus completing the community to three members.
On Monday September 17, 2007, Memorial of St. Robert Bellarmine, the Bishop of Kumbo, Mgr. George Nkuo, sent out a circular, announcing the creation of the foundation of the sisters of HHCJ in the diocese. The Bishop welcomed the new nuns and expressed hope that they would “join the other religious communities already present to collaborate in the great task of evangelisation in the Diocese of Kumbo.” The Bishop further called on all the priests, religious men and women and Lay Faithful of the diocese to “give these new sisters the support and collaboration they need to settle and feel part of this our beloved Church in Kumbo.” The sisters of the HHCJ already have two houses in the Diocese of Buea and one in the Diocese of Mamfe.
They are yet to begin a house in the Archdiocese of Bamenda. They are involved in formal education, clerical and pastoral works.