For the past four years, Sister Marilyn Umunnakwe has been serving families and children at Minneapolis nonprofit Sharing and Caring Hands but will leave in October for a new role.
A sister of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Mother of Christ; Sister Umunnakwe will become the new regional superior for the order in Freeport, Illinois. The Nigeria native has been serving with the order since 1991 when she entered the novitiate. She took her final vows in 1997 and then earned a master’s degree in educational psychology in Rome.
Sister Umunnakwe came to Minneapolis in 2014 to serve with the sisters who minister at Sharing and Caring Hands. She helped families as an advocate as they transitioned from homelessness to stability at Mary’s Place, a 100-unit transitional housing program run by Sharing and Caring Hands. She also worked with children after school at Sharing and Caring Hands’ Children’s Center.
Sister Umunnakwe said that seeing “families move on and when they come back to say thank you” was the most rewarding part of the work.
