Fundamental basis of apostolic activities is God's plan of redemption. The word that became flesh (Jn 1:14), lowered and humbled himself in order to serve others. Even today those who follow Christ, on the path of the evangelical counsels intend to go where Christ went and to do what he did1 (V.C 76). Our community is specially intended to serve Christ in the Church through clear and precise ways suited to the founding charism. Acquiring strength, through the incessant prayers and rendering loving service we proclaim the word of God in the different fields of apostolate. Today the dream of the founder and the pioneers are carried out by the members of the Christu Jyoti Province through their services to the poor, oppressed, illiterate, homeless, orphans, downtrodden and the vulnerable ones in the society.
1. Proclamation of the Gospel
The missionary commands of Jesus to preach the Gospel (Mk 16:15), and make disciples of all (Mt 28:19), are valid forever. Faith formation is the first and foremost aim of evangelization. We employ every means suitable to form the parish community into a family, that worship God the Father in truth and spirit. The faithful laity of the Lawan parish is the fruit of the active and continuous hard work of our sisters. Now it is a model parish in the diocese of Raipur. We inspire and encourage children, youth and adult in the parishes to participate actively and faithfully in the Liturgy -Eucharistic celebration, sacraments and other pious activities. It is a matter of pride that there are vocations to religious life and priesthood from Lawan, Dugoli and Bijapur parishes.
With the zeal to make known and acknowledge the supreme love of the incarnate God, and to glorify the Sacred Heart, our sisters in the province are engaged in various fields of activities, in the diocese of Ujjain, Raipur, Jagadalpur, Rajkot Nagpur and Palai. In schools, the sisters prepare the young generation to attain an integrated personality to learn and practise the universal and moral values, that help to build a peaceful and harmonious world. Our sisters find out opportunities for manifesting the compassionate love of Jesus among their colleagues, students and servants. In the field of social welfare activities also, the message of Jesus is propagated especially, to the suffering people mainly by telling the story of Jesus and the life witness.
In VC Late Pope John Paul II exhorts"the consecrated persons by the charism of their institute should preserve in their witness of love towards the sick, devoting themselves to them with profound understanding and compassion" Sacred Heart Congregation that originated for the glorification of the heavenly father and the upliftment of the poor and the oppressed, considers charitative activities as one of it's important apostolate. The founding members experienced the compassionate love of God and responded to it2 (Const. No.9).
2 : 1 Care for the destitute and orphans : Our founder was zealous to share Christ's compassionate love with the destitute and the forlorn. Following the advice of the founder father we receive poor and the oppressed and provide them food and shelter with motherly love, and help them to grow as God -fearing good citizens.
2 : 2 Balika Bhawan:
It is with the intention of sharing the compassionate love, we started S.H.Balikabhavan at Chadessera and Children's home at Dendewada a Centenary memento, especially for the girls who lost their parents in naxalite attacks. Both these institutions are run under the ascendancy of the Province. Our sisters are rendering services in different Balbhavans- Ujjain, Bijapur and Dugoly, in different dioceses with above 100 children in each. In all these institutions our sisters work as in charges and they are bringing up the children in discipline, moral and Christian values. They train them in such a way that they may grow in all aspects -physical, mental, spiritual and intellectual including character formation. For better academic performance free tuition and special coaching also is arranged.
2 : 3 Hostels: When nobody thought of promoting the education of girls, our founder father started a School for girls in Pala at Kannadiyurmpu with a future vision. Keeping the same spirit we always try to provide hostel facilities for girl students. S.H. Bhawan Jagadalpur, S.H. Boarding Dentawada, S. H. Hostel Bhavanagar are examples of it. Apart from giving accommodation, the sisters take care of their integral development.
2 : 4 
Nursing the Sick: About fourteen million people of India are estimated to be suffering from T.B. India is experiencing an alarming increase in the transmission of HIV. In spite of all efforts, Malaria deaths are still prevalent in our country. New contagious diseases like, Swine-flu, bird-flu etc are causing great tension among the people. It is in this context the health mission of the Sacred Heart Congregation has to play vital role in promoting health of the people especially the poor and the marginalized. Our sisters visit the sick in the hospitals and in families, in a spirit of sacrifice, so that they may be worthy of the words of our savior (Const. 1936)"I was sick and you visited me (Mt 25:36). In order to make the sick to feel the healing touch of Jesus and to extent a helping hand to the sick and the suffering, 55 sisters of our province render their service in health centers, dispensaries and hospitals in different diocese.
(i) S. H. Dispensary Mendiya: It is located in the Provincial House campus and started in the year 1999. It is a great blessing for the poor people of the neighbouring villages. Occasionally medical camps are arranged with the help of doctors and sisters of Pushpa Mission Hospital.
(ii) S. H. Hospital Dantewada: It is also a province owned hospital situated in the district of Dentawada in Chattisgarh, a Malaria predominated area. Our sister doctor Merly James and other sisters render their selfless service round the clock. The frequent medical camps held here are blessings for the villagers.
(iii) Jyoti Dispensary Lawan: It is also a province owned dispensary. Right from the beginning this is functioning very well, by the dedicated service of our sisters in collaboration with the parish priest and parishners. The selfless service of our sister doctor Elcina Thachett and other sisters enhance the efficient functioning of it.
(iv) Pushpa Hospital Ujjain : It is owned by the diocese of Ujjain. From the very beginning of the diocese, our sisters render their service here.
In addition to this, our sisters render their service through dispensaries in the remote villages like Bajrangarh, Dolti, Phulchap and Bijapur. Our sisters have undertaken many other activities such as immunization campaign, medical camps, Malaria eradication programmes, health awareness camps etc, in their zeal to spread the compassionate love of Sacred Heart of Jesus.
As a matter of fact, majority of the sisters in the medical field are in the inaccessible and under developed areas to serve the poor and the marginalized people, to be at the service of the last, least and the lost.
3 Education Keeping Jesus as the perfect model and also considering the interest of the founder that the sisters should take more care in the education of women and children, sisters of our province plunged into the field of education ever since its inscription.
The primary objective of education is to strive to achieve highest development of the total man, irrespective of caste and creed. The strenuous effort put in by our sisters in the field of education is remarkable. Where ever they are and whatever the circumstances our sisters are convinced of their mission, vision and goal, and they leave no stone unturned to inculcate gospel values in students. To materialize this goal in almost all the Schools sisters take moral education classes and make use of all the occasions to impart Christ. They take genuine interest to serve the marginalized, both economically and socially. The sisters visit the families and find the felt need of the people and present their problems to the notice of the management. The students and parents are made aware of the schemes of the government, trust, diocese, and the deserving ones get financial aid for their higher education. In order to facilitate the education of girls, there are boarding houses.
3: 1 Prem Pragati Special School: Four of our sisters render their full time in caring the mentally challenged children in this residential school at Rajgargh. The changes t
hat have come in the behavioural pattern of these children are by the laborious efforts and motherly care of our sisters.
3 : 2 Sacred Heart Basic Education Scheme (SHBES): This is a scheme of our province to uplift the downtrodden and the marginalized group of children of the villagers through education. By this scheme tuition classes are given to the village government school going children and to non-school going children, either by the sisters or by tuition teachers under the supervision of the sisters. It is financially supported by the social welfare department of the province. Province provides tuition fees for the tuition master and Rs. 300/- per student in each year for study material and uniform. The sister in charge takes care of all round development of the children and keeps a record of each student and sends an annual report of account to the provincial house. This scheme is functioning very well in Baloda Bazar, Lawan, Bajarangarh, Mendiya, and Ujjain.
3 : 3 Catechism: Sisters take the responsibility of teaching catechism in parishes. Preparation for First Holy Communion and confirmation is systematically arranged, where ever there are catholic communities. Youth groups are formed under the guidance of sisters. Timely sharing and discussions are held to from the modern youth more religious minded and faithful. We need to do more in order to bring education with in the reach of every child.
4 Social Welfare Activities:
The good news of liberation announced by the word of God can not be isolated from the good news of human efforts of developments and humanization (mission policy of Syro-Malabar Church). We the S. H sisters of Christu Jyoti Province, are trying to discern the voice of Christ in the cry for help that arises from this world of poverty through various activities, we do in the underdeveloped areas. Children are supreme assets and the future human resources of the community. So right from infancy, they should be taught the moral and Christian values. The vast majority of the children are unfortunately missing the opportunity, knowing this great truth our sisters are conducting various programmes in the villages, like SHBES programme, Balawadies, non formal adult education programmes etc in different villages. Our sisters in Ujjain, Mendiya, Phulchab, Dolti, Bijapur, Dugoli and Bajarangarh.are engaged in full time village programmes .
Under the social welfare department of different dioceses our sisters are working in more than 220 villages. SHGs and other income generating programmes are active in these villages by the guidance of our sisters. The purpose of SHGs is to empower the women and enable them to be independent and earning. In collaboration with government agencies short term vocational training programmes such as tailoring for women, electrician course for young man, bag making, baby kits making, pickle preparation etc are found helpful for these villagers. Along with all the before said programmes, health care also is given in these villages through periodical check ups, medical camps, awareness classes on hygiene, immunization, child care, healthy family life, HIV/AIDS, etc, with the help of audio visual programmes.
In the field of agriculture too, our sisters become a helping hand for the villagers in getting quality seeds, manure and fertilizers and subsidies. Nine of our sisters are spending their full time in the field of social work. 2% of the total income of every community and 12% of annual income of the province are for the social welfare activities. Social welfare fund of the province provides economical help to the poor and the downtrodden for house construction, treatment, education, marriage expenses of the girls etc, by receiving applications from our sisters in the different mission stations, in the given Performa.
Remembering the compassionate love practised by the founder father, on his death anniversary we invite the poor villagers for a meal or provide food materials to them
We who identify ourselves with the poor and enjoying the compassionate love of Jesus should opt for them and should strive for their integral liberation. A clear cut net work is formed in the entire Congregation and strong net work is formed in this line. We are called to extend helping hands to the marginalized through love and encouragement. Various social welfare activities are organized considering the felt needs of the time. Our Sisters are moving forward with this goal through the following projects
Mochana: It is a project that aims at forming a community devoid of alcoholism.
Jyoti project: The Project aims at the integrated development of the children of alchoholics through free tuitions, awareness programmes, outings and counseling.
Aishwarya Project: It aims at encouraging the saving capacity of the children and to utilize the money for productive purposes providing contributions from our part.
Darshan: The project aims at the bringing up of children in goal orientation.
Wings to wing: This is a scheme to promote higher education of the children affected by financial difficulty.
Jyothis Library: It aims at imparting values to the children and to encourage reading habits.
Spark in Family: It is a programme which includes all the family welfare activities.
Pradeeksha: The project aims at giving information about the government projects meant for the the welfare of the people.
Evergreen: It is an effort to practice eco-spirituality, thereby to maintain ecological balance.
Saradhi: This programme for the auto, taxi drivers are run in a very good way in different places of the congregation.
Sacred Heart Basic Educational Scheme (SHBES): This scheme provides educational facilities and financial support for children in the villages.
Village development: It aims at the development of the village from each Province by awareness classes, Seminars, family counseling etc.
IGP: As part of income generation programme we give financial help to run shops, provide sewing machine, goats raring, employment through making baby kits, sandal stick
