Archbishop Charles Heerey Memorial College of nursing Sciences Ogbor Hill Aba is a Private College of Nursing owned and managed by the sisters of the immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ. The institute of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of Christ, in communion with the humble and compassionate Christ, has in the mid-50s and especially during and after the civil war, been called to follow Christ joyfully in the Healthcare delivery system. The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ, in their healthcare services aim at holistic preventive and restoration of the whole human person and families, with special attention to the less privileged children and mothers in their reproductive years, in union with Christ Jesus. The sisters believe that their services to the needy and sick persons in humility and compassion unite them more deeply with Christ and the weak, suffering and vulnerable. This informed the indispensable role played by the sisters during the civil war, when despite their personnel shortage, were able to attend to the nutritional and medico-nursing needs of the war-torn families and children, most of whom suffered marasmus and kwashiorkor.

The repatriation of the expatriates (missionaries) from the country caused the then Superior General to post our health personnel (mainly nurses) to man the mission hospitals at the request of the local ordinaries whose dioceses were affected by the exit of the missionaries. With devotion, empathy and deep compassion, the sisters discharged their duties satisfactorily with little or no remuneration. This is in tandem with the attitude of Jesus Christ who identified strongly with the sick and vulnerable and so mandated his disciples to go into the world, to “proclaim the kingdom God and to heal the sick”. This explains why our Father Founder, Archbishop Charles Heerey, arriving in Calabar as a young missionary in 1922, in compassion and humility visited and consoled a leper. Archbishop Charles Heerey believed very much in the Catholic holistic approach to healthcare delivery, which formed the hallmark for employment of all health personnel that worked in the mission health facilities within his jurisdiction.

To further continue the special healthcare delivery services and promote the necessary manpower needed to render the services in the spirit of empathy and compassion, the 10th General Chapter approved the establishment of a College of Health Sciences at our landed property at Ogbor Hill Aba, in Abia State. Our 11th Chapter equally approved the academic institution of healthcare system so as to produce polyvalent nurses and midwives who would uphold the values of integrity, respect, empathy, devotion, compassion and other virtues and attitudes inherent in Christian approach to care, with the name, “Archbishop Charles Heerey Memorial College of Nursing Sciences”, which will house three departments- General Nursing; Basic Midwifery and Public Health Nursing, to start with.

The programs will be reachable to candidates from all over the federation and from nearby states, which are virgin areas for Mission institution for Nursing, Midwifery and Public Health Nursing Programs. Invariably, the departments with their specific objectives would serve as veritable links for midwifery and public health work force, and in the case of midwifery in particular would play indispensable role in supporting community’s, women’s and newborns’ access to competent and skilled care for safe pregnancy, child birth and puerperal health care, with drastic reduction in maternal morbidity and mortality rates. While the Public Health Nursing Program with its holistic nature focuses attention in rendering preventive health care service to people in their natural setting- homes, work-places, schools to provide preventive, curative and rehabilitative health care services.