The first branch of the Congregation of Cottolengo Sisters in India was opened in 1977 December at Fortkochi, Kerala. The first house was blessed by His Excellency Joseph Kureethara the Bishop of Diocese of Cochin on 30th April 1978.

This house is established with the purpose of giving our assistance to the sick and most needy people in the locality, starting a special school and residence for the differently abled children especially for the intellectually disabled.

At present we are 17 Sisters in the Cochin Community, engaged in different activities such as: Special school, Residence for the differently abled persons, Physiotherapy, Religious formation and Pastoral activities.

In 1979 we have started boarding with 12 children both boys and girls who were coming to our Cottolengo special school from far, but due to some inconvenience we closed the Boarding. In 1990 we restarted to accommodate around 30 girls.  We train them in self skills, domestic activities, gardening and vocational work. Five of our Sisters are fully engaged in rendering their service to them. It registered under Board of control for Orphanages and other charitable homes, Kerala.

PASTORAL ACTIVITIES

We are also engaged in various parochial activities: Family apostolic, faith formation, youth ministry etc. We recruit girls who aspire to join in our service and dedicate themselves to God in the service of our poor brothers and sisters. For this purpose in 1981 we have established a formation house for them.  In the beginning we had the candidates from Kerala state only. At present we have girls from different states both north and south. We have Aspirants, students and postulants in our Fort Cochin formation house. We give them opportunities to understand our life style and prepare themselves spiritually, morally and professionally in order to serve the poor and the needy people according to our Charism. We teach the students English and local languages. Two of our Sisters are taking the responsibility of forming these girls and also they work for the vocation promotion.

PHYSIOTHERAPY

In 1981 we have started a day Clinic and after some years we have closed due to availability of other governmental medical facilities around our locality. In 1982 a Physiotherapy centre had been opened in the premise of school itself for the rehabilitation of students, soon it has been opened for the people of locality too. We consider it as a kind of solidarity that reaches out to share and alleviate the pain of others. Currently in our physiotherapy unit around 45 persons are frequented daily for the treatment. Our four Sisters are working in this centre, from Monday to Friday.