Carving a separate niche from her more famous siblings — former Goa chief minister Dr Wilfred de Souza, and Jesuit institution builder and management educator Fr Romualdo de Souza, SJ —- Sister Noemia de Souza has walked her own impactful path. She was one of the early second line of institution builders and administrators of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary religious congregation, and some of its many educational institutions for girls in India. More specifically, she administered and in its early years helped consolidate, the iconic Nirmala Niketan College of Home Science and the College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, both in Churchgate, Bombay; to which institutions, she dedicated thirty years of her career. Now retired, but still active in her congregation at Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa, in 2021, Sr. Noemia told Pamela D’Mello her story, intertwined into which are insights into the historical trajectory of women’s education, in Goa and India.

Q. Tell us about your early life, Sister.

A: I was born on 28 September 1935 in Kampala, Africa and lived my first eleven years there. They were war years. After the war, the ships to India restarted sailing operations, so I returned to Goa in May 1946 with some of my family to our house in Saligao. At that time, there were only Portuguese, Konkani and Marathi schools in our ancestral village of Anjuna — so we had to live in Saligao, since I was going to be admitted to secondary school.

I had completed ten primary years of education at Kampala. My father was a doctor who practiced there. We went to this Goan School, Kampala (which had been established by Norman Godinho). Primary schooling was counted up to standard six in Goa. I had to do the Premier Grau Portuguese exam. In 1945, Mother Bridget Sequeira of Saligao had founded the Franciscan Missionaries of Christ the King in Karachi. The nuns first started Lourdes Convent in Gill Pinto’s house in Cotula, Saligao, just across the road from us. Another girl Celine and I were the first secondary students of Lourdes Convent, in June 1946, while plenty of other children enrolled for KG, 1,2, 3 etc that first year. I completed secondary school in 1950.

That was also the year Father returned to Goa post-retirement, with my brothers; so we were all at our Anjuna home. There were no colleges in Goa. One could only do seven years of Portuguese Lyceum, if one wanted after secondary school. For further studies and professional courses, you had to go abroad or like many did, to Bombay, Dharwad or Belgaum. My mother said `Nothing doing, all the borders are closed, you will not go’. Those were freedom movement years, so the borders were closed.  So I stayed at home for a year. I was 15. That year I lost my brother. He was two and a half years younger to me. He was 12 years old when he passed, and had always been a sickly child.

Meanwhile in 1951, our Society, the Daughters of the Heart of Mary (DHM) came to India. The Portuguese nun Maria Paiva Couceiro, who headed the order, had always wanted to come to India. The Society had houses all over Europe, many in France and they had gone to the Americas — Canada, the US, a few in South America. Hailing from Portuguese nobility, Couceiro was aware of Goa — some of her relatives had been Viceroys and Governors in Mozambique, Angola and Goa, some had held high positions, and worked with the King. She wanted to start the Society in Goa, and came here in 1951. 

They had initially made contact with the Coelho sisters — who as President of the Young Girls Catholic Action, had visited Lisbon for the 1948 canonization of Portuguese priest John de Britto, and during that visit had stayed at the DHM hostel there. Couceiro happened to be the hostel warden at that time and learnt more about Goa from the girls. She then initiated the process of starting a mission in Goa, the Society’s first foray into Asia. Couceiro told the Holy Father, who spoke to the Patriarch of Goa. Couceiro’s brother was the Governor of Daman at the time, when she came in 1951 to Panjim along with another nun.

Initially, they started retreats and recollections for young girls  in a local house in Altinho, Panjim. Then in 1952, the government  gave them the premises of Escola National (renamed Nossa Senhora de Piedade or Institute Piedade), which had earlier run cooking, sewing and Portuguese classes for women, a finishing school of sorts for girls, run under the leadership of two sisters, the Corriea Afonsos I think ). The handover took a year, and the next year, it was advertised in the O Heraldo, that two Portuguese ladies had started a home science course for girls and young women. My mother read it and said, ‘This is what she needs, not going to college’. She didn’t tell me anything, but went and enrolled me for the June 1952 batch. My father, who had wanted me to be a doctor, was meanwhile not keeping well. Along with the Home Science course, the DHM nuns also ran a hostel for us, and for girls who studied at the Lyceum. We were a big group who enrolled then. Traveling from Anjuna was impossible. In those days, just one bus left from Anjuna at 7.30 am, via Saligao, Pilerne, crossing the Betim ferry for Panjim, and the same bus returned  back, leaving Panjim at 5.30 pm with the mainly office going crowd. I stayed at the hostel and completed the course.


My father had always wanted me to be a doctor, but that dream got shattered, when my mother refused to let me leave Goa for college outside, due to all the political trouble at the time. So I then set my sights on becoming a Religious, but did not tell my mother. Fate made it happen. I was involved with the Catholic Action group, during my course in Home Science. The group wanted to start work in Anjuna, so I did so.

In those days, the Archdiocese was taking over the Portuguese language primary schools that had been started and run by lay people, like St Joseph’s, Arpora and turning them into high schools. Change was in the air, some were fighting for freedom. English was coming in, everyone wanted to study in English, not in Portuguese. The same happened with Sacred Heart School, Anjuna, that was being run by Edwin de Souza, his daughter Edna and his brother Ligori.

The Diocese needed teachers, so in 1953, when I completed my Home Science course, at 17 years, I started teaching Class 1, 2 and 3 at Sacred Heart School Anjuna, for Rs 35 a month. In those days, it was a great thing. I taught there for three years till 1956. One day, my mother learnt from the priest about my desire to join a religious congregation. But she was not willing to let me leave home, before I turned 21. Which I did in 1956.


That year, my brother Orlando, was getting married in Bombay, and we had all gone to the city. His bride’s relatives hailed from Saligao and lived in Rangoon. One of her relations was the famed doctor Arthur D’Sa. My father, who had still not given up on me becoming a doctor, took me to the Holy Family Hospital, in Bandra, Bombay which is run by medical missionary sisters there. We tried to meet the Sister Superior there, but the first nun we met brushed us off, and we could not meet the Sister Superior to take matters further. When we returned home disappointed and put off, my mentors advised me to return to Institute Piedade, Panjim instead, as it was a good fit for me. Taking this advice, I began teaching at the Institute Piedade in July 1956, and after six months of assessment,  the congregation nuns assessed I had a vocation and permitted me to join the Daughters of the Heart of Mary in Panjim, which I did in 1957.

I was sent to their Paris House for my four year novitiate, in 1958. We are not a closed congregation, so alongside my novitiate, I did my teachers training in Home Science, there in Paris and completed that in June 1962. The next day my superiors told me: ‘Your passage is booked, report back to Goa, India’, where I was to teach Home Science in the Panjim Institute. I was shocked and disappointed. There was no time to meet my family. I had to leave Paris, even though my family were due to arrive in Paris in a week’s time, to attend the priestly ordination of a cousin brother, who along with me, had also studied in Paris. I had made all the arrangements for his first mass at our chapel in Paris, but I had to leave without seeing it through or meeting the family.

 When I got back to Goa, it was to see that by that time, the Home Science course was receiving a poor response from students. We had just three students, and even they were not serious. The landscape had changed after 1961. Colleges had begun opening up. Chowgule and Dempo had started Arts, Science and Commerce colleges. Our centres in Betim and Portais continued to teach girls to read and write, cut and sew. There was a dire need for teachers. But we saw that teachers who had passed SSC or even graduation, did not have any educator training.

One of our Indian sisters had done her teacher training course in the USA. So in 1963, we shut down the Home Science course and instead started a teachers training college with 35 students initially — that eventually went on to serve the community really well. But we were now short of premises, with the Institute Piedade proving inadequate.  Though we had been granted land in 1952, by the Archbishop Patriarch, it had remained unused and vacant. Almost the entire Altinho hill had pre-1961, belonged to the Patriarch. By the time we had dire need for it, we found the police department had occupied half of it. By the time we went to court and got it back, we were only able to build the current Nirmala Institute of Education college in 1970.

Back in 1954 itself, after starting a base in Goa, the Society’s Sister Superior visited Bombay, while three other nuns went to Karachi. Sister Couceiro immediately realised there was much more to do in bustling, teeming Bombay, after the quiet of Goa. They appraised Cardinal Valerian Gracias of their plans to start a college. Guiomar Coelho also joined the Society. At first they operated from a small place, but by 1963, they had decided to start a big college of Home Science in Churchgate, Bombay and Karachi. Since I was already trained in Home Science, I was directed to study further and then go to Bombay to teach. So I enrolled for a B.Sc in Dempe college, with Chemistry as a major subject from 1963-1967. For three of those four years, Dempe was then housed at the Lyceum building.

The Bombay Nirmala Niketan College of Home Science was started with 13 students in a small place, run by two nuns. At first they built the first two floors, then completed the remainder six floors, but the demand for seats was so much, that the space was not enough. Today, it is in the seven storied building opposite and has just been accredited by NAAC as an A+ college. And on this side, we run the College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, which has been chosen as a Centre par excellence.

The next day after finishing my B.Sc in 1967, I had to leave to join the  Bombay Home Science College.By then, I had developed an interest in textiles and clothing. I had a teacher training degree in Home Science from Paris.  When I joined the Bombay college, the textile branch was a diploma course. I was put on the job of revising the syllabus, combining both my Home Science and B.Sc training and devised the course into a clothing and textile course, with a slant on textile chemistry, manufacture of fibres and chemistry of fibres. I also devised a curriculum and course for an M.Sc in Textile Chemistry and Clothing. In 1969, when we got University recognition, we were able to turn it into a graduate and post graduate course, while also running the diploma courses for those who wanted it. In the 1970s, we were permitted to run the Junior College for  11th and 12th std students of 100 students each in Home Science, and it gave me a chance to work on this syllabus as well. From starting with just 13 students, running out of a small premise, the college grew to take in 2500 students.


As an examiner for the 12th and B.Sc exams, I had to travel a lot to Nasik, Surat, Pune, Hyderabad and Baroda. We were just a few nuns then. There was Sr. Colette Galby, and three more missionaries, who put the India province on its feet, starting seventeen Houses, including the Nirmala Institute of Education in Goa in 1952, Bombay Home Science in 1954, and Social Work college in Mangalore in 1960. A fourth college was started in Madras. I worked in Bombay from 1967 to 1995, till I completed sixty years. I worked with Sr. Galby for thirty years. All the foreign missionaries went back in the mid nineteen eighties, after putting the province on its feet.

When we started out in Bombay, we were just two nuns, but we bought the land across from the Nirmala Niketan College of Home Science to start the College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan. Along with our Home Science students, teachers and well wishers, we had to raise funds to build the seven storied building across. We held fundraisers, premier shows in Liberty, concerts at Shanmukhananda and Birla Hall.
When I left Bombay in 1995, I was Principal and Superior of the House in Bombay. Then I was Superior of the House in Goa for six years from 1995- December 2001. Then I was sent back as Director of the Bombay Nirmala Niketan College of Polytechnic.

While the Home Science College in Bombay was prospering, the Polytechnic was not doing too well. At first we had five hundred students, and were running courses from 8.30 am to 7.30 pm in Travel and Tourism, Secretarial Courses, Interior Designing. With that yearly income, we could paint the building, a little at a time, one year the exterior, one year two floors of the interior. Government grants do not cover maintenance costs, that has to be raised.


In February 2002, I went back to Bombay. Before that stint, I spent two months in Geneva, with Sr. Galby, who was the hostel warden there. I returned for the June 2002 admissions. I had to strengthen the Polytechnic courses. We were doing excellently in Interior Designing, but the other courses needed to be worked on. The Fashion Designing Diploma course now does very well, and our graduates get employment in big industries. I ran the Bombay Polytechnic College until 2008. Then they needed a Superior in Mangalore, so I was posted there for five years. In all I’ve done Superior-ship duties in Bombay, Goa and Mangalore. Now I am retired in the Goa House. But I have duties here too, to see to the house linen, besides writing a book on the Society’s history, and greet and guide people who come to the House. We are five of us in our eighties.

Q. What dimension of your career did you enjoy more — teaching or administration?

A. I have done both. In Bombay, I was not only teaching, but when we purchased the land, we had to enthuse the staff and students to help us raise funds to put up the college and then for the maintenance and upkeep of the buildings. We were responsible for that. The staff would come and tell me, ‘this tap is not working’, ‘those bulbs have blown’, ‘the pump is not working’. I had my maintenance workers, but the duty stopped with me. They couldn’t go to the Principal, so everyone came with such matters to ‘Miss de Souza’. We were just two nuns of the House, managing the College, with professional lay teaching and other staff. Seeing to the maintenance of a seven storied building is not a joke, but I ran seven floors in those days.


Q. I believe you have also authored a textbook?

A. Yes, It’s called Fabric Care and is 130 pages. The publishers wanted something written on textile care, so John Wiley approached me. The existing book on the subject at the time, had gotten outdated. So I started writing, and it was published by International Eastern Publishing. It still brings me some royalty. The book is used not just by Home Science courses, but textile chemistry university courses, the industry and the University Department of Chemical Technology refer to it to understand the soaps, detergents and machines needed for fabric and textile care.


Q. And one hears you are working on another book.

A. As I was one of the first to join the Nirmala Niketan Institute in Goa, I am penning its history of the last seventy years. I have written my part, now the other sisters have to look through it.

Q. Are you in touch with your students?

A. Yes. I enjoyed teaching very much. My past students call me even now and are in touch with me via Facebook. Every time, my niece Suzie de Souza posts something about me on Facebook, all of my students respond with so many messages, it warms my heart. I must have guided some 200 students for their Masters degree. Some of my students joined as faculty members of the college. In fact, five of them, retired this year.


As I was in charge of maintenance of the buildings, I interacted with students of all the streams and knew them all. I used to go around, asking them if the classrooms were okay, if the teachers came, if they needed anything — seeing to the needs of the people and the College. Now lay people have taken on the running of the College, but the management and maintenance is still run by the Sisters. Management is a huge task in itself. But in those early days, we had to handle both the management, as well as do our teaching.


Q. How did you manage project development and human resource management, that was required of you?

A. When you have people under you willing to work, and they see you working, then they are willing to work as well. In those days, we did everything, and because of that, the Colleges got built and ran. Even now, people acknowledge that we built the Institutions in Bombay. I spent 34 years in Bombay, in two stints, first for 28 years and then for 6 years. We built it up from the Foundation. Sr Galby and I were there, when the land was bought. There were just four of us, when we laid the foundation stone and blessed the land with some medals and prayers, no big celebration. We got the architects, said this is what we need, this floor for chemistry, this floor for clothing, we need these many rooms for each. We ourselves coordinated with the architect.

I learnt a lot from Sr. Galby, the way she managed everything. We were just a few nuns, but we multi-tasked, saw to the teaching or taught ourselves, saw to maintenance, planning, co-ordinated everything. The Society started the Mangalore College in 1960 and the Ernakulam Institute in 1961. In those days, we used to have a big exhibition in Bombay every year. Then some of us sisters would pack up the exhibition and travel by ship with it to our other institutes in Mangalore and Ernakulam.

Q. Which of your postings has been your most challenging, you would say?

A. Bombay was the most hectic. Most of my students are from that stint, they are now all over the world, across many industries. I also involved myself in and liked my pastoral work there. Sister Galby left India in 1981, having arrived in 1951. I was Superior of the House when she left. She had taught us to run and keep the House like a Church. We celebrated every Christmas, Easter, and observed Lent in the House Chapel, inviting all our neighbours, especially our non-Christian ones, to celebrate with us. When, in 1981, the Small Christian Communities came into being, we did a survey for the entire Sonapur area of Bombay. We got involved in the parish work. Two of us sisters would dedicate two hours, from 5.30-7.30 pm in the evening to this work and visit parishioners. College was at 8 am, so we had to be up by 5.30 am. I still wake up at that time, even now.
I was in the first Parish Council of Sonapur Church, when it was formed and made many friends.

Q. What qualities would you say were critical to you being an institution builder?

A. You can do it, if one is not working for oneself, but for a higher purpose. In my case, it was to build the Kingdom of God. And you have to have an interest in people and a relationship with people — all people, big and small, poor and rich, of all religions. I remember, we did not have a parish council in Panjim, until 1995, though all the surrounding villages had started. Before it did, one member of the laity and myself were assigned the Altinho, Panjim area and we went visiting each household.
And you have to have a relationship with Nature. That is important.

Q. How do you spend your time now, post retirement?

A. There is a lot to do. Besides what I told you earlier, I stay in touch with what is happening in the world. I sign and support petitions for this and that cause, Freedom United, petitions against child labour, or bonded labour. There’s still something one can do.