Our sisters were called to Kowtal, which belongs to the mission diocese of Bellary, by Bishop Yaddanapally O.F.M. for direct evangelization in the surrounding villages and to cater to the needs of the few low caste Harijans who became Christians but had very weak faith and little knowledge about the religion. At that time Fr. Owen McLaughlin O.F.M. was the parish priest and Mother Battistina was the provincial superior. The community was inaugurated on 2nd July 1970 on the feast of the visitation of Mary. On this memorable day a dispensary and a boarding home were opened. In 1987 grihini home was started for poor, uneducated and school drop out girls. In the year 1999 sisters were called to teach in the parish school.

Kowtal is a village. It is in Manvi Taluk and is a part of Raichur district in the region of North Karnataka. It is draught prone area. People live with no proper basic necessities of life—like drinking water, sanitation, good hospitals, drainage system, transport etc. Some people own their piece of land but due to lack of water they cannot cultivate. Most of the people go for cooli work migrating to Bangalore, Mangalore, Goa and Pune. They leave their children in the boarding for education. There are more than 2500 families living in this village out of which 70 families are Catholic. We have one main parish and 24 substations which we periodically visit. In 8 villages (substations) there are chapels.

Having seen the poor health of the villagers we started a dispensary for them. Gradually as the health facilities in the vicinity improved, we did not feel the need to continue the dispensary. Today we give treatment only for boarding children for minor ailments.

• Community: "Vinalaya" - Sirwar

• Situated: North Karnataka in the district of Raichur

• Opened in the Year: August 1979

• Diocese: Bellary

• The then bishop: Rt. Rev. Ambrose Yeddanpally

• Main Apostolate: Faith formation and Evangelization, Health, Socio-pastoral work, Education and later Boarding for poor children of the locality was started.

The community of Vinalaya was born due to the pressing need of preparing catechumens for supporting the faith of the newly baptized flock. Besides the health needs of the people was not properly met by the Government health facilities. Children too were not sent to schools. Therefore the need for presence of the sisters was urgent. The then Bishop Rt. Rev Ambrose Yeddanapally, made an earnest request to the Provincial Superior for looking into the matter.

This was how the community of Sirwar -”Vinalaya” was born answering to these needs of the people.

The villages in Sirwar were very much under-developed in all aspects, with primitive customs and cultures leading to superstitious beliefs. This still continues to exist among them to this day. A strong feeling of caste system is prevalent. There are 2 groups of people namely the rich caste landlords and the poor uneducated, hardworking, daily-wage earners. Our Catholics belong to the latter group.

A separate tribal group of hard working Lambadis is also living in their own traditional ways.
Today there are 25 Catholic families in Sirwar and 6 sub-stations. They are backward spiritually, morally, socially, culturally and economically.

• Faith Formation of the faithful: Through family visits, Teaching catechism and Reading and sharing of the Word of God.

• Social Work: Promotion of women and children; formation of SHGs in the villages; Instructing and promoting life and human dignity; helping to improve the quality of family life; helping the dropout children to admit in the school.

• Children’s home: At present there are 36 children in the boarding from different villages. They are going to the Government schools. Priority is given to their faith formation, seeing to their studies by tuitions. Also train them to live a value-based life.

• Healing Ministry: Total care and 24 hours service to the patients about home remedies: instructing about health and hygiene; instilling trust and obedience in God.

• Teaching Ministry: Human Promotion and development through education. One sister teaches in the parish school as a model for other teachers.