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Convent: +91 91 3218-2322/09, Email: lfc24@vsnl.net
Basanti, situated on the bank of a side channel linking the Matla with the Vidya. Centered on this tiny village town , the Basanti. in the history of Basanti on 22nd May 1934 , Sister Mary Theodosi (Sr. Provincial ) Sister Anne Marie as Superior, Sr. M. Stanislas as Assitant, Sister Ciril Mary for School , Sister Sylvina for the Dispensary and “Jack of all Trade “. Father Mesaric and Brother Drobnic met them at Canning and brought them safely to Basanti by their “Little Flower Boat". At the Fathers’ Bungalow were waiting for them a number of people and Fathers.J. Vizjak and Poderzaj. They received them with great joy. By evening they went to the Convent which was still in the ‘making’. In the Compound was an old mud building, a long haul, which was to serve as the school and dormitory. On 20th June the school children began to come in. Small and big- some of them were of marriageable age; there were about 70 in all. The St. Teresa’s School was thus opened. Then the sick began to pour in. But they had very little in the way of medicines and no place to keep them. It took some time to build dispensary and the ‘Widows’ House. The following year the Widows’ House caught fire. In May, 1937 a terrible cyclone flattened to the ground the school building, the Widows’ House, the kitchen and the go down. This made them to think of a brick building but no money. In 1941 there was a terrible famine – it was a year never to be forgotten. The Sisters did nothing but cooking, nursing, feeding the hungry and burying the dead. A year later Sisters managed to get some of the girls on the Orphan list. With this they received some help from the Government, so they found it a little easier to run the School and feed the children. Between 1951 and ’52 the Hospital was built with the generous help of Mr. D. Guha in memory of his mother and is named after her Snehalata Guha Maternity Hospital. The Technical Department was opened in 1964. It prepared the students for the Lady Brabourne Diploma three year course. At present it provides a six month course on Tailoring, too.
Phones: +91 91 3218-2361/25. Local: +91 9118-36125 The history dates back to the year 1993. Little Flower Convent, Basanti, being the only Mission house of the Daughters of the Cross, in the Catholic Diocese of Baruipur, the sisters felt the need to open another house and render their service to the people of this beautiful Island. Land was bought in the year 1994 in the island of Gosaba. Sisters from Basanti, would come and stay here on weekends, visit the families till the community was finally established in 2000 with three sisters: Sr. Rita Perumaden, Sr. Mary Fulgencia and Sr. Sandhya Tirkey being the first members of the Community of Marie Therese Health Center, Gosaba. The Convent was blessed on 12th March 2000 by Fr. Shyamal Bose. The sisters were engaged in healing pastoral and social ministries. The dispensary in Gosaba continued till 2012. It was noticed that patients’ number decreased gradually due to the coming up of private clinics and availability of free facilities in the government hospital close by. Often the doctors went back without seeing any patient. The people felt the need of an English medium school in their island so they approached the sisters with their request. The matter was discussed with Sr. Regina Kottackal, the then Provincial during her visits to the Community. Provincial gave permission to close down the dispensary and begin a Nursery School in June 2013. The first batch of Nursery class began with 4 students on 2nd January 2014 under the leadership of Sr. Manju Dungdung. As gradually the number of students increased, more class rooms and facilities were needed. Therefore, the process to build a new school building with better infrastructure began. The dispensary was broken down. The foundation for the new building was blessed by Rev. Fr. Ujjwal Mondal, the former Parish Priest of the Catholic Church, Gosaba on 27th November 2018. The New School Building Daughters of the Cross, St. Joseph’s Primary School, Gosaba was blessed by Rt. Rev. Shyamal Bose, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Baruipur on 19th March 2021 in the presence of Sr. Regi Mathew, Provincial Superior and many FCs from Basanti and Calcutta.
At the invitation of Rev. Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur diocese the Daughters of the Cross ventured out to Baidyapur into the rural Bengal to share their lives with the people there. On 16th September 2013, Sr. Jayanti Molla and Sr. Sanju Toppo came to Baidyapur to begin their mission. Sacred Heart Convent was raised to the status of a community on 21st April 2014. Sr. Agatha Dungdung was the first Superior. |
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