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 and South Africa. Prospective mission sites under consideration include ministries in Namibia, Zambia, and Jamaica. 

You can visit the blogs of our missioners in Bolivia by clicking here.

You can visit the blogs of our missioners in South Africa by clicking here.

Click here to read a recent article from The Catholic Virginian about the work of current FMS missioner, Emily Ward.

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.

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.

Amanecer is a system of homes that provide a new beginning for the abandoned, abused and orphaned street children of Cochabamba.

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

South Africa

Johannesburg

Franciscan Mission Service recently established a new partnership with Fr. Stan Brennan, OFM, a Franciscan friar serving in South Africa. FMS Lay missioners will serve at St. Francis Care Center, on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, which provides free services to the impoverished population, a large portion of whom have HIV/AIDS. The Center includes several clinics, a nursery school, a children's home, and an AIDS hospice. For more information about St. Francis Care Center, please visit their website here.