WHERE WE SERVE

Over the past 20 years, Franciscan Mission Service has placed lay missioners in such countries as: Bolivia, Bosnia, Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Namibia, Nicaragua, Peru, Siberia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, the Philippines, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Currently, FMS has missioners in Bolivia, South Africa, and Zambia. Prospective mission sites under consideration include Namibia, Kenya, and Jamaica.

Bolivia

FMS has been sending missioners to Bolivia for over 10 years. We have a number of ministry options available in two locations in Bolivia: Cochabamba (a city of over 1 million people) and the more rural location of Carmen Pampa.

Click here to read the blogs of our missioners in Bolivia.

Cochabamba

Through a partnership with an OFM friar in Cochabamba, FMS missioners engage in a wide variety of ministries and live at the Franciscan Social Center in the downtown area of Cochabamba. The social center is home to a number of social services offered to the community. Visit the links below to learn more about some of the ministries we are a part of.

Niños con Valor is an organization in Cochabamba that reaches out to children who are living with HIV, seeking to bring them hope, healing, and a sense of value. Our current volunteer mentors the children and organizes educational workshops about HIV to reduce discrimination and stigma.

Our missioners also volunteer at Franciscans International, becoming part of a the global community that provides a Franciscan voice at the United Nations. The missioners collaborate with leaders from Bolivian religious orders to raise ecological consciousness and inform local families about caring for creation, a core Franciscan value.

San Carlos Parish Center is another ministry placement for our missioners. Serving the San Carlos parish in Cochabamba, there are endless opportunities for the missioners to engage with the local people - assisting students with homework at the afterschool program, translating, leading students on trips, and helping the parishioners compost and plant gardens, empowering them to grow their own food.

Proyecto Horizonte Ushpa-Ushpa is a multi-faceted program that brings education, day care, health care, microfinance and microenterprise and cultural development to the Ushpa-Ushpa community -- a poor community on the outskirts of Cochabamba. We currently have one missioner serving in this program. You can also view this inspiring video about the program.

Carmen Pampa

FMS in is partnership with the Catholic university in Carmen Pampa, known as the Unidad Academica Campesina de Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP). Founded in 1990 by a Franciscan sister, Sr. Damon Nolan, the college in rural Bolivia generates social and economic change through community-centered education.

The Carmen Pampa Fund supports the students of the UAC-CP. 

Metal sculpture of St. Francis at the entrance to the university. The sculpture was designed and donated by Diana Rickerl of South Dakota State University.

Landscape of Carmen Pampa

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South Africa

Click here to read the blogs of our missioners in South Africa.

Johannesburg

FMS Lay missioners serve at the St. Francis Care Centre, a walk-in clinic, nursery school, orphanage, and hospice for HIV/AIDS patients. This mission site was made possible through a partnership with Fr. Stan Brennan, OFM, a Franciscan friar that founded the St. Francis Care Centre. The center is located on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa. Each year, the St. Francis Care Centre provides free medical, physical, emotional, and spiritual care to about 300-500 patients, most of whom are impoverished and have HIV/AIDS.  

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Zambia

With books in hand, Bryce and Sandra Bradford are ready to teach classes at the Franciscan high school. This school, run by the friars, has over 700 students.