Loreto Bangladesh-During Covid 19 lockdown 2020
On 3rd January 2021, another Health Camp was organised by the Maria Sick Shelter at Barishal.
Chapel & House decoration.
Health Camp 22nd December 2020.
Health Camp organised by Maria Sick Shelter at Moungthay Para on 16th October 2020.
Grandparents Day - A good number of grandparents were honoured by the children performing dance
activities & giving cards & small gifts for them.
Our twin school celebrates the farewell of the Higher School Certificate examinees
The juniors school, the Cub group went to Dhaka on 2nd February for Campuri camp & won many awards
History Has Been Created For the First Time Ever a Full Fledged Debate in English
Cultural Programme
Basketball match held on 6th August 2019 between four houses - সাম্য, মৈত্রী, ঐক্য & প্রগতি
Whole of Bangladesh celebrated 'Hand washing Day
A+ Students of the class X Board Exam at the
SSC - Secondary School Certificate Examination. All students who secured 80 percent and more were awarded at the felicitation ceremony.
Blessing of the Residence in Dhaka
Felicitation ceremony
Freshers Welcome 1
Freshers Welcome 2
Hand writing competition
Inter - school cultural competition
Parent - Teacher Meeting
Rabindra-Nazrul Jayantiremembering the Master with our respects
The opening of the Plus Two section after long 7 years of untiring efforts 1
The opening of the Plus Two section after long 7 years of untiring efforts 2
REACHING OUT TO OTHERS IN SERVICE - WITH THEIR MOBILE CLINIC TO DISTANT VILLAGES
ST. ALFRED’S HIGH SCHOOL, BANGLADESH
In 2013 the region was amalgamated and with Loreto’s presence now in India, Nepal
and Bangladesh, in whatever ministry that meets the needs of society, the Province
of India became the Province of South Asia.
Having been pioneers of quality education for women in India, the Loreto Sisters
took on whole-heartedly the call of the Congregation to make a preferential option
for the poor. Even though every Loreto school admitted students who were and are,
economically disadvantaged, from the beginning of the‘70s into the ‘80s and until
the present, the Sisters took a further step by actively engaging with the task of
community development by setting up development centres- i.e. the Darjeeling Mary
Ward Social Centre in 2006 and the Kolkata Mary Ward Social Centre in 2014, which
helped in a focussed approach to social upliftment. They also set up schools in
remote rural areas and provided accommodation for girls from rural areas who wished
to pursue further studies
The Rainbow Homes were set up in the regular schools, availing of the existing
infrastructural facilities to ensure a secure future to those who could have been
otherwise lost. This model has spread to other places as well. Today the government
endorses this model through its Sarva Shiksha Abigyan programme and now runs similar Homes
in many of their schools.
The Loreto sisters have not only been pioneers in education but have been instrumental
in the Foundation of three other women’s Congregations in India. The story of the
founding of the Daughters of St. Anne in Ranchi and Bengal is a fascinating one.
The Lutheran missionaries of the Gosner Evangelical Lutheran Church- came to Chotanagpur
in 1845 and established a Church and schools in Ranchi. They were followed by the Anglicans.
Father Auguste Stockman was the pioneer of the Catholic mission and came to Chaibasa in 1873
and worked among the Ho people.
Meanwhile, the military cantonment in Doranda had Fatherr Ferdinand de Coq as chaplain
from 1877 and he explored the possibilities of the Ranchi environs. Eventually in 1886
the Jesuits came to Ranchi to set up schools .They soon saw the need for the education
of girls as well as boys and in 1890 Mother Gonzaga Joynt accepted the Bishop’s s invitation
to open a convent in Ranchi for the education of the tribal girls, setting up a boarding school
that matched the life-style of the simple Adivasi families that the children came from.
The founding members were Mother Gonzaga Mc McCarthy with Sisters Patricia Quinn, Aloysia O’Brien
and Teresa Rodriguez.
The boarding school provided religious education – preparation for the Sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation and Matrimony along with literacy, hygiene and basic skills for good home making.
The boarders went home for the planting and harvest seasons. Some came only for the marriage
classes while others continued in the school for several years. The style of living was very
simple Adivasi practice – no beds, tables or chairs but sleeping mats, metal plates and glasses.
There might be as many as 400 girls or as few as 75, depending on the season and particular needs.
When Puran Prasad Kispotta’s daughters reached marriageable age they refused to marry the better
educated grooms their father found them. They wished to be like the Loreto Sisters in prayer and
service. After prayer and consultation with the General Superior, a pious association of St Anne was
formed and the girls continued their studies and religious education under the guidance of the Loreto
sisters and the Congregation of the Daughters of St Anne began in 1897 with Puran Prasad’s two daughters,
his niece and her friend - Sisters Bernadette, Veronica,
Cecilia and Mary. Sister Bernadette is now Venerable Bernadette, the first step towards canonization.
As this order of Indian women religious grew, some of its members were gradually relocated to other
Loreto mission outreach sites, including Morapai.
The Ursuline Sisters took over from Loreto in Ranchi in February, 1903 and continued the
formation of this new congregation of tribal nuns.
St. Teresa of Kolkata was a Loreto Sister for 20 years and received all her formation in Loreto.
In 1946 she wrote to Mother Gertrude Kennedy, the then Superior General about the “call within
the call;” Mother Gertrude and the Loreto Sisters supported her in her search for God’s call as
she left the gates of Loreto Convent Entally in 1948 to undergo basic medical training in the Medical
Missionary Sisters’ Hospital in Patna. From then began the Saints’ journey in serving the “poorest of the poor.”
Venerable Mary Ward, the Founder of the congregation of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Loreto,
believed that “The ways of virtue endure no standing still; she who does not go forward goes back.” And thus
God’s work continues to unfold and history is created in and through the Loreto Sisters in South Asia and the world.