Faridabad - Bethany Northern Province

Bethany Convent, Pakhal, Faridabad (25.09.1976)

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.

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.

NEW COMMUNITY AT PAKHAL FARIDABAD ( 19.03.2019)

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.