The Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo

Kamba village, Varap post, shahad, Kalyan west,
Thane Dist, Maharashtra, India - 421103

St.Charles Convent, Thuthiyoor - Kerala

On November 8, 1993, the community of Thuthiyoor came into existence. The initiative for purchasing the land in Kerala was taken by Sr.Renee and Sr.Saroj from the Eastern Province. As per the decision of the General Council this project was entrusted to the Western Province. At the beginning, the sisters stayed in a rented house for two years. Srs.Bede and Mary Thomas were the pioneers and later Sr.Annie Nedumkallel joined them as the animator of the community. The community was canonically established on June 1st 1994.Since our land was one kilometer far away from the church, the parish priest and the parishioners requested the sisters to exchange one acre land with the parish land which was close to the parish to build the convent. It was done with the registration. On February 27, 1995 the foundation stone was laid for the convent building by Most.Rev.Dr. Cornelius Elanjcal, the Archbishop of Verapoly. The convent was blessed and the sisters occupied the newly built convent on March 31, 1996.
Purpose of the Mission
The intention of starting this house was to promote vocations and to start a hostel for the working women. The latter has yet to become a reality. Since the Ernakulam-Angamally diocese has started a hostel close by for the working women there was no need to duplicate the same. The mission was modified to suit the needs of the locality. An I.C.S.E School was started for lower middle class society.
Its Expansion
Education and Pastoral work is given priority. The first steps taken by the sisters were to visit all the families of the parish, especially the sick, the aged and the poor .The parish ran a primary school. But the standard of the school at that time was very low. So the sisters were taking extra classes for the children after the school hours. The sisters gave whole hearted support to the parish priest and took active participation in all the activities of the parish. They involved themselves in teaching Sunday Catechism, preparing the children for First Holy communion, Confirmation and faith formation like Thirubalasakyam, CLC, Legion of Mary, attending the BCC Meetings, marriage preparation, Altar arrangement, Communion service etc.
Education :- A small seedling planted now began to sprout with the commencement of an English Medium school started by the sisters on 5th June 1996. Sr.Clare Joseph as the first headmistress of the school and Sr.Mini Peter as the teacher began the Academic Year with 18 students admitted to LKG.
November 8, 1997 way a remarkable day for the sisters as the foundation stone for the school was laid by the parish priest Rev.Fr.Jose Thannipaily in the presence of Sr.Damian, the sisters and the parishioners. Soon the construction of the school was completed and the sisters also enrolled about 20 children from Malayalam Medium School and started the classes from II to VI. The school has always given prominence to the economically poorer section of the society.
With the tireless and dedicated effort of our sisters, Sr. Damian and Sr. Tresa Augustine with the help of our neighbor Mr. P.J Thomas Pandinjarekutt and Mr. Joseph Kattamchery ( the then Panchayath officer) got the NOC from the State Government to start the ICSE syllabus, on 20th September 1998.On May 2, 2000, the sisters received the Affiliation from the ICSE Board, New Delhi for the school.
Sr.Bernadine, the then Provincial Superior met Bishop Daniel and Rt.Rev.Varkey Vithayathil and proposed to them the buying of a land from the diocese for the School Playground. After discussing the matter to the authorities, the adjacent land was purchased and its registration was done on 27th February 2001.
In keeping with the changing and upgrading of the school the foundation for the extension of the school building was laid by Rev.Fr.Philip our parish priest in the presence of Sr.Janet our then provincial, Sr.Rita, the provincial councilor for finance, Sr.Lydia,the MLA of the constituency Mr. Benny Behnan, members of the Municipal Council and the sisters, on 8th September 2013.

On 21st January 2017 the Inauguration of the New School Complex was done by Rev.Sr.Aleana Fernandez and blessed by Very Rev.Msgr.Joseph Padiyaramparambil in the presence of Rev.Sr Celine Saldana, the General Councilor for Education, Rev.Fr. Philiph, Sr. Rita, Sr. Jyothi and the sisters along with the special invitees Prof.K.V Thomas (the M.P of the constituency) and the members of the Municipality Council.

From the request of the parents, the sisters decided to start the ISE for the ICSE students of our school. So with the permission of the authorities the first batch of 10 students was enrolled in the Academic Year 2017. After the inspection from the ISE Council, New Delhi the school was granted the permission for the ISE.
With the strenuous effort of Sr.Philomina Jacob and the staff the students appeared the ISE competitive exam which was conducted in February-March 2019. They really made the school happy and proud with their excellent result.
Good tidings we always receive from the old students as they are placed well in the society and serving the society in different fields.

Here in this Villa Borrome, we continue the same mission and also take part in the pastoral activities of the local Parish like SCC meetings, house visits, communion to the home bound and in the Parish, catechism, and liturgical activities.

Difficulties of the Mission the Sisters faced.
Lack of sufficient fund in the school due to less admission. But the community always grateful to the provincials and their team for their timely help, support and the guidance for the development of the mission.