Sisters of Saint Francis Rochester Minnesota

Colombia, Colegio Santa Francisca Romana:
In 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota, Cardinal Luis Concha Córdoba and Mother Callista, Mother General of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Lourdes, expressed their desire to have the Sisters work in Colombian education. This was in direct response to a call from the Holy Father Pope John XXIII for Congregations to move resources to help developing countries.The ideal plan of the Cardinal was to start a school for middle class women to be secretaries and clerks in business offices. The school would offer a high academic level and moral and spiritual formation guided by Franciscan principles. Five Sisters arrived in Colombia in September, 1962, namely, Sisters Maeve Cashman, Consuelo Chavez, Robaire Joswick, Baylon Zamboni and Mary Beth Modde. In February, 1963, the doors were opened for the first students at Colegio Santa Francisca Romana, located on Calle 64 No. 7-37. Two years later, the school moved to Usaquén, next to the church. In 1965, the school population grew to three hundred fifty students and moved to Calle 152 No. 34-02, the present site. At this moment , there are approximately one thousand students in preschool, primary and high school.

Colombia, School of Nursing, University of Javeriana, Bogotá:
The Rector of the University requested assistance from the Sisters of Saint Francis, Rochester. In 1964, Sister Lea (Jean Schulte) arrived from the United States to help develop a four-year university nursing program. A three-year diploma program already existed. S. Jean along with the nursing faculty concentrated on improving the curriculum, on teacher preparation, and on the organization and function of the faculty committees. The plan was to encourage nursing education and practice through scholarship and graduate level study. Teacher preparation was seen as paramount with the ultimate goal of relinquishing the leadership roles to the Colombians once they return with adequate nursing and administrative preparation and education. In addition to the obvious goals of education, S. Jean and the staff succeeded in writing grants to: improve faculty salaries, increase the volume size of the nursing library, more fully equip the teaching facility, provide consulting services, and in-service education. The Sisters' involvement in this program was completed in August 1968, but the program continues to this day.

Colombia, Department of Nursing at San Ignacio Hospital, Bogotá:
Simultaneously with the arrival of Sister Lea, three other Sisters organized the Department of Nursing at the Hospital San Ignacio. Sister Maeve Cashman was the director of nursing for five years and the other two sisters were working in other services. The work of the Sisters in the hospital was very important because they raised nursing to a profession and established a model of leadership in this profession.

Colombia, Santa Isabel Orphanage, Bogotá:
In 1965, the Franciscan Sisters founded Santa Isabel Orphanage, a school for girls who were from low economic resources. Unfortunately, the Franciscan Community could not continue this work very long because it lacked the necessary financial support and so these girls went to other schools; ten went to CSFR.

Colombia, Day Care Center in Barrio San Carlos, Bogotá: (La Sala Cuna la Niña María)
Sister Stephania Kienast started the Sala Cuna La Nina Maria in March of 1970. The parish team and teens surveyed the Barrio San Carlos and decided that a day care center was one of the most pressing needs. Sr. Edmund Sullivan sent clothing and the white veils previously worn by novices were used as sheets in the cribs - a perfect fit.

In March, 1970, and for the following five years, the Franciscan Sisters directed the Day Care Center in the Barrio San Carlos in south Bogotá. S. Cecilia Rolling came to Colombia in late October 1970 and opened the Sala Cuna alone in February of 1971. S. Dora Medina later joined S. Cecilia. A position paper written by Ss. Dora and Cecilia concerning the organization and administration of day care was brought to the Ministra de Trabajo (Minister of Labor). She studied it carefully and incorporated all of their suggestion into a new law governing day care. This center was closed in 1974.

Colombia, Day Care Center in Barrio Prado Pinzón, Bogotá: (Jardin Infantile Corporación de Colores)
A second-day care center was built and S. Cecilia was asked to be the director and did all the organizational work to open this center. The Corporation de Colores was a Colombian group that worked in partnership with ICBF to run this center. ICBF is the Instituto Colombian Bienestar Familiar - similar to our Health, Education and Family Office here in the states. The Sisters from the Colegio Santa Francisca Romana (CSFR) brought students over to teach the mothers of the children, but no other Sisters were involved with this day-care center. All of the employees were experienced lay people, several of whom had worked with S. Cecilia in Barrio San Carlos. The Sisters at CSFR were a tremendous support, saving paper and other things that could be used in the center. The Sisters who worked at the center were provided a stipend to live on and didn't take a salary. All the money that came in was used at the center for the children.

Colombia, The Dispensary, Bogotá:
In 1982, the drop-in clinic, located on Colegio Santa Francisca Romana property, was founded by several alumnae, students of medicine. It serves the poor of the barrio. The Dispensary is fully licensed and approved by the Secretary of Health, and serves the students and families of Colegio Anexo San Francisco de Asis, along with any other persons who come to the clinic for medical and dental care. Most of the patients come from the barrios that are located in the northeastern part of the city of Bogotá.
The Dispensary provides basic dental and medical care, first-aid assistance, and works extensively, both on site and in the barrio, in the area of prevention. Three young professionals are employed by the Dispensary for one year terms, completing their "rural year" as required by the Ministry of Health, in order to receive their professional titles.

Currently, the Dispensary attends an average of 400 patients in dentistry each month, and another 230 patients in medicine. Prenatal care and control is a common service provided by the Dispensary to pregnant mothers, along with vaccination campaigns, and screening for detection and control of tuberculosis. There is a growth and development program for children, measuring height and weight, supervising nutritional programs, observing development of gross/fine motor skills, social development, and language development. The "new smile" program was developed, whereby elderly patients who have no teeth are able to receive a complete set of dentures, plus a complete medical exam and any necessary treatment, in order to restore a quality of life to each of them - gratis! Public heath care in the barrio includes home visits provided by the dentists and doctor on a weekIy basis to patients who are not able to come to the Dispensary.

A significant financial support to the Dispensary is provided by the volunteers themselves, who organize a variety of activities throughout the year to raise the necessary monies for the Dispensary to continue to function.

Colombia, Colegio Anexo San Francisco de Asís (CASFA), Bogotá:
CASFA is a Spanish language, coeducational school, from pre-kindergartan through senior high that serves children and youth from the northeastern neighborhoods of the city of Bogotá. The curriculum offers a technical preparation especially in the areas of baking and carpentry, as well as strong business formation. This orientation seeks to form persons with a high development of their potential, focused in the leadership of their own lives, as well as the lives of their families and communities. Senior high students participate in an apprenticeship program in a variety of businesses that are partners with the Colegio in this educational process.

CASFA began in 1985. At that time of Colombia's population of 33 million, 10 million were illiterate. The government was not able to respond to the educational needs of the people. Ss. Patricia Leon, Valerie Usher, and Tierney Trueman, along with Gonzalo Diaz, decided to begin CASFA, offering education to children who were of school age, but who had no opportunity to study because of the lack of a sufficient number of schools.
One important aspect of the Colegio is the following:
--to make of the family, the school and the community one single work team, in order to achieve integrity in the formation of thestudents.
Additional programs offered by CASFA are:
--twenty-two Bienstar daycare centers operated in the homes of the mothers who direct these centers, that are under the direction of the CASFA staff.
-- psychological service are provided to CASFA students and parents through certified psychologists.
--language therapy and occupational therapy services are provided to children of the daycare centers and the preschool and elementary school students of CASFA.

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