FAsCE India: Fransalian Agency for Social Care and Education in India, Guwahati
Fransalian Agency for Social Care and Education in India (FAsCE India) is the social action initiative of the Missionaries of St Francis de Sales, North East India Province. Service to the poor and the marginalised constitute a core element of living Christian faith to its fullest. The MSFS came to North East India in 1975 and began to take up missions in the remotest parts of the Region. Challenged by the sufferings of the poor and the marginalised, the confreres began to engage in works that alleviate pain of the poor and assist them in time of need.
The grass-root level experience of ministry in the Region led the confreres to discuss more on social concerns at various forums and meetings. Eventually, a series of study and reflection carried out in the Provincial Congresses and Chapters, over a period of more than two decades, took the Social Apostolate to the phase of organised activity in the Province . Thus the dream of setting up a social service organization started to take a specific shape in 2005 with the appointment of Fr Jose Karipadathu, who by then had completed MSW studies. He became the founding Director in 2005 and continued in the post till 2011.
As a first step, Fr Jose took initiative to register an NGO with the name, Fransalian Agency for Social Care and Education in India (FAsCE India) as a Registered Society with Fr Abraham Mullenkuzhy (President), Fr Jacob Mattathil (Vice-President), Fr Jose Karipadathu (Secretary), Fr Emmanuel Mappilaparambil (Treasurer), Fr Thomas Aerathedathu (Member), Fr Roy Parayaniyil (Member) and Fr Roy Muthadathu (Member) as founding members of the first Governing Board. It was registered on October 26, 2005 (Registration of Societies, Act XXI of 1860: No. SR/FASCE-05/05 of 2005 under the Meghalaya Societies Registration Act, XII of 1983) with its office at MSFS Study House, Shillong. Soon, Income Tax Registration (U/S 12AA) of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (No.48 / 12AA / Tech/05-06 / 5590-92, dated 30.01.2006) was also obtained for effective functioning of the Charitable Society.
FAsCE India, as an organization, came to develop its own vision and mission. The vision articulates: “Creation of a just and equitable, peaceful and prosperous society, rooted in the firm faith and collective conviction in the capacity of persons towards socio-economic development and individual well-being of all, particularly the underprivileged”. And its mssion is, “ensuring personal empowerment and social development of the marginalised – rural and urban, tribal and non-tribal – population of the Northeast India, by creating awareness, transforming attitudes, availing opportunities and initiating activities”. The establishment of FAsCE India gave a fresh course for social action in the Province. Fr Jose took further initiatives. With the support from external donors he implemented two projects: the eradication of leprosy (Arunachal Pradesh) and promotion of adult literacy (Assam). These activities gave further impetus to expand FAsCE India’s intervention for the uplift of the marginalised sections.
With the guidance of the Provincial and Director, Fr Jose, coupled with the expertise of Mr Shaji Fernandez, the FAsCE India began to make new steps in its organizational structure and services. Various need-based projects came to be planned, initiated and implemented effectively in different mission centres. A consolidated Annual Report of the years (2007-2010) was prepared and published. Thus for the first time, a publication on FAsCE India saw the light of the day. With the enthusiastic participation of more confreres, the plans and projects continued to be implemented at select mission centres with greater intensity. Eventually, programmes came to be arranged for the confreres to enhance their knowledge of social ministry and how it can complement our pastoral ministry.
With the appointment of Fr Emmanuel Mappilaparambil, the Provincial Councillor for Social Apostolate & Innovative Ministries, as the new Executive Director on July 15, 2011, FAsCE India entered into a new phase of activities. In June 2012 Fr Emmanuel moved to FAsCE India Head Office at MSFS Provincialate, Guwahati, as full time Director. The services and the volume of workload also began to increase. Soon FAsCE India gained a fresh drive in its interventions and began to spread the wings of service all over northeast India.
As Executive Director, Fr Emmanuel gave full attention to FAsCE India’s growth. He redesigned the logo of the organisation, began FAsCE news letter a quarterly and registered FAsCE India with NGO Partnership System of Government of India and with PADOR of European Union. The Provincial administration took the decision to provide better office facilities to the work of FAsCE India at the Provincialate. The new office facility was inaugurated on February 9, 2013 by Fr Francis Thadathil, former Provincial of Northeast India province, and was blessed by Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati Archdiocese. New staff members were recruited for the Head Office, to assist the zonal field staff for better coordination and effective implementation of the projects.
During the years 2011-2016, FAsCE India has grown both as an organization as well as in its services to the marginalised sections of the society. During this period, FAsCE India was able to streamline its social interventions to focus areas, and address specific needs/problems of an area or a community. Accordingly, projects were planned and implemented with a view to improve lives of the stakeholders: Promotion of Child Rights, Community Development through Empowerment of Women, Vocational Skill Development of School Dropout Youth, Promotion of Peace, Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) of the Persons with Difficulties (PwDs), Promotion of Health and Protection of Environment.
These experiences rendered a rare opportunity to FAsCE in deepening its own perception on social ministry and even develop a methodology based on Fransalian Charism. In the execution of these various programmes and projects, FAsCE India adopted a ‘Right-based Approach’ to social work, bringing more dynamism and professionalism in the Social Apostolate. The determination and commitment of staff members and confreres involved in social ministry provided a new ambience for further advancement and growth of the organization.
During this period, FAsCE India spearheaded the improvement of various social service centres in the Province: improvement of facilities and extension of Technical Institutes at Diphu and Imphal with necessary infrastructure; and starting of Vocational Training Centres in Gogamukh and Hamren. It organised a series of capacity building programmes for the stakeholders, especially for the school teachers, youth and women. It also assisted in the planning, organisation and resource mobilisation for various projects in the Province.
On January 24, 2014 Fr George Panthanmackel was appointed the Provincial of North East India Province and thereby the President of FAsCE India. Provincial Congress 2014 (23-27 April) gave more impetus to Social Ministry by proposing the following: training more confreres for the ministry, creating Social Intervention Cell in every centre, conducting Social Orientation Programme for all confreres and constructing a Transit House cum Training Centre for Social Ministry at Upper Assam.
As a follow up to strengthen the Organisation Fr Vintu Avittappallil (2014-15), after the completion of his post-graduation in Print Journalism and internship with Deccan Herald in Bangalore was appointed the Associate Director of FAsCE India with effect from August 20, 2014. With his arrival and expertise the Facebook account for FAsCE India was opened and the official website of FAsCE India was launched on February 3, 2015 at its head office during the inauguration of the social work orientation programme for the members of North East India Province of MSFS. In 2015, FAsCE India began peace building in the Region as a new venture. A project was designed and the implementation is underway in collaboration with Fransalian Youth Mission (FYM).
On the occasion of the celebration of Decennial, a Peer-Review of FAsCE India was conducted by its Founder Director Fr Jose Karipadathu. The review made a study on the various aspects of its interventions between 2005 and 2015. This study, brought out the impact of FAsCE India on its target people and society. The review gave an appraisal on its major achievements and recommended ways for its future engagements in critical areas. The study report was also presented to the Provincial Administration so as to enable them to take relevant and appropriate decisions.
Fr Clean N Arengh, who completed his MSW, was appointed the Associate Director of FAsCE India with effect from June 24, 2015, in place of Fr Vintu. During the period, FAsCE India also raised fund for two major constructions, namely FAsCE India Community Facilitation Centre (Socio-Pastoral Training Centre), Silapathar, and Boys’ Hostel at Umwahlang in Meghalaya.
On December 3, 2015, Mr Shaji Fernandez, the Deputy Director cum Chief Programme Officer of FAsCE India, was relieved from his duties in the Organisation. His dedicated service and leadership in the organization for a period of five-and-a-half years took FAsCE India to fresh paths and helped it to achieve greater strides in its development.
At the appointment of the Executive Director, Fr Emmanuel Mappilaparambil, as the first Regional Superior of the newly erected Region under the Northeast India Province on December 3, 2015, Fr Saji George Puthiyakulangara, the Associate Director of Society for Medical Education, North India, was appointed Executive Director of FAsCE India with effect from January 20, 2016. FAsCE india also owes its success to all its office staff members particularly Ms Chaya Kalita (Office Staff), Mrs Regina (Programme Coordinator).
COVID 19 RELIEF SERVICE: SOLACE IN TIME OF NEED
Since the first phase of nation-wide lockdown in March 2020, FAsCE India in the MSFS Guwahati Province organized emergency relief by distribution of essential food items, soaps and masks to more than 13.000 needy families covering more than 80.000 people in and around its head-office neighbourhood, adjacent places at Guwahati in Kamrup (Metro) District of Assam, and other parts of Assam and North-eastern states during the entire lockdown period by immediately responding to mitigate the hardship of the daily wage labourers and needy families living in poor conditions by providing ration packages of essential food items like rice, dal (lentils), onion, potato, cooking oil, salt, soaps and masks were also added to the packages as an emergency relief.
FAsCE India initiated the COVID-19 Relief Work under a project named: “Solace in Times of Need”. “Solace in times of Need” aims at bringing solace to the people in need, especially the vulnerable and underprivileged sections of the society: migrants, the daily wage earners, old, single mothers, tea garden laborers, street vendors, slum dwellers, cycle rickshaw personal, vulnerable children and differently abled sections of the society. The project is being executed in two phases: Phase I, before the lock down period (before 25th March) and the ongoing Phase II during the lock down period. Phase I was characterized by an awareness campaign in various villages and the phase II is comprised of 1. Distribution of Essential food items 2. Distribution of cooked food and 3. Thermal Screening.
|
SL. NO |
DIRECTOR |
YEAR |
|
1 |
Jose Karipadathu |
2005-2011 |
|
2 |
Emmanuel Mappilaparambil |
2011-2016 |
|
3 |
Saji George Puthiyakulangara |
2016 - |
|
SL. NO |
Associate Director |
YEAR |
|
1 |
Vintu Augustine |
2014-2015 |
|
2 |
Clean NArengh |
2015 - 2018 |
|
3 |
Anto Thomas (Intern – Nagpur Province) |
2019 |
