Founded in 1922, St. Catherine’s Home was Ida Dickenson’s initiative to provide shelter and an environment of love and care to homeless girls, especially unmarried mothers. In December 1927, when she could no longer manage the work, the Bishop of Bombay requested the Religious Sisters of Daughters of the Cross to take over her work.
The charism of the Daughters of the Cross is to loving serve the weakest and most suffering members of society. With almost ten decades of lovingly caring for children and young women, the ultimate goal of St. Catherine’s Home is empowering deprived, abused, underprivileged girls and young women to be confident, qualified, responsible, value-based citizens of our country.
From 1927, at St. Catherine’s Home, the Religious Sisters of the Daughters of the Cross, provide a home to helpless, vulnerable babies, girls and young women, most of whom have been deprived of the love and protection of parents and a family, due to some oppressive circumstances. The Sisters and children tried to settle in several places but found them unsatisfactory. Finally, in 1948, two families donated land for the Home and that is how St. Catherine’s Home came to be in the lush green surroundings of Veera Desai Road, Andheri (West), Mumbai, India.
Children are admitted under different groupings – abandoned/relinquished babies, toddlers, orphans, children living with HIV, girls in need of protection from abuse, children from abusive/ unsafe life situations, abused minor girls and unmarried mothers. Presently there are around 250 residents.
St. Catherine's Home for Girls is located in the lush green surroundings of Veera Desai Road, Andheri.
The charism of the Daughters of the Cross is to lovingly serve the weakest and most suffering members of society.
Each child is a unique and equally valuable human being, with the right to life, to survival and development to the child's fullest potential.
All children need to feel accepted, loved, understood, supported and accompanied, so that they blossom into the wonderful persons they are.