05. Bethany Convent, Faridabad

Sr M Molly BS
Superior

Members of the Community

Convent building

BLA Members in Faridabad

Youth development training programme

 

Vocational training programme

Inequality is a crucial factor in Indian society and to address this as much as we can in the late seventies, Bethany made a great shift in its service. Opening a convent focusing its mission only on the poor and migrants was one such. Bethany Convent, Faridabad in Haryana thus became the first community set apart in the Northern Province for the service of the underprivileged through Social Action. It is also the first community of Bethany in the Archdiocese of Delhi. In 1976, Most Rev Angelo Fernandes, the Archbishop of Delhi, invited the Bethany Sisters to found a community in Faridabad, to assist in the pastoral work at St Joseph’s Parish, which had a large Catholic migrant population. There were also lepers and slum dwellers around this area that needed the compassionate service of the sisters.

Hence on 28 September 1976, responding to the invitation of the Archbishop, Mother Macrina, the Superior General, opened a convent at  A2 Central Green,NH5 Faridabad with  Sr Poma as Superior and Sr Eulalia, Sr Agnelita  and Sr Berlinda as members.
The sisters immediately attended to their mission of pastoral care in the parish, and service in the leper colony besides opening a crèche for the children of working parents. The Chief Administrator of the Faridabad Municipal Complex boosted the sisters’ work by donating a plot of land at NH2 where a building is constructed to carry on the developmental activities.
Over the years the following activities are carried on:

Health Care, Adult Education, Self Help Groups, National Open Schooling, Education through Indira Gandhi Open University Vocational Skills for  youth and women, Domestic Workers’ Forum, Mid-day meal in the slums, Children’s Parliament, Environment related programmes, Pastoral Care in the Parish and  Bethany Lay Association (BLA). Sr Veronica Monteiro is the present superior of the convent.

Year of establishment: 25.09.1976

NEW COMMUNITY AT FARIDABAD

Change of location of Bethany Convent, Faridabad, Haryana

Our Community in Faridabad has been shifted to the new venue Bethany Convent Flat No. 4638, Kalindi Hills, Achievers Builders Sector- 49, Faridabad -121 001 Haryana, after 41 years of service in the parish of Faridabad in pastoral, social and non- formal educational apostolate. We were rather compelled by the Delhi archdiocese to surrender the convent building which was given to us by the Archbishop Angelo Fernandes in the year 1976 close to the parish church. The Congregation has purchased a new plot of land to continue our mission. Bethany (NP) had the first registered Social Service Society and activities in Faridabad.