OpenHearts.org
Title
Franciscan Family Apostolate
Description
Founded in 1971 to alleviate destitution in India, the Franciscan Family Apostolate presently assists over 1100 destitute families in the district of Alappuzha, Kerala, South India with monthly food subsidies, housing, medical attention and self-development programs. This area abuts the Arabian Sea and is populated by poor fisherfolk who because of their poverty have little political influence to change their future. Plagued by the seasonal nature of fishing, high unemployment in the district, corporate trawlers and sea erosion from the annual monsoons the fisherfolk are considered one of the poorest economic classes in the country falling in income way below the official poverty line.
The FFA's primary responsibility is to seek out sponsors who are willing to support a family's monthly subsistence, assisting them in their destitution, hopefully with an eye to raising them out of destitution.
The Franciscan Family Apostolate is committed to assisting only families not is diverting funds for community development. It seeks to hook up American families with poor families in India. Once a family is assigned that family remains the sponsors responsibility until they no longer need assistance or until the sponsor leaves the program. It is hoped that through assistance and correspondence an interfamily relationship will develop.
