English 
The province of Vijayawada constitutes our first mission outside Italy and had its humble beginning on 2nd October 1948 with the arrival of the first six Italian sisters: Paola Barlassina, Antonia Pisoni, Ida Moiana, Federica Cavenago, Clementina Fico and Teresina Galimberti who settled in Gudivada, in the diocese of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, responding to the invitation of Archbishop Domenico Grassi of PIME, the first bishop of the diocese.
Starting from 1958, the Indian sisters who entered our missionary family have added strength and dynamism to the new mission and many communities were opened in different parts of the diocese of Vijayawada. The growth of our family has brought its fruit in this predominantly Hindu context to the establishment of many parishes and Christian communities.
Since the specific characteristic of our Institutes mission ad extra (outside of our country of origin), from 1968, many Indian missionaries left for different missions in different continents to spread the Gospel everywhere.
At present we have more than 302 sisters in the province of Vijayawada, most of whom are Indians and few Italians. They are engaged in the pastoral and catechetical activities, in the fields of health (hospitals, health centres, general dispensaries, centres for Hansenians and AIDS patients), in the education apostolate (schools and hostels) and work for the social developmental activities.
The sisters in India share the concerns of the local Church. They see that the essential elements of mission and evangelization in today’s context are: the presence and testimony; Commitment to social development and human promotion; Liturgical life, prayer and contemplation; Interreligious dialogue and inculturation; Proclamation and catechesis.
In 1985 our mission in India was divided into two Provinces with the headquarters at Vijayawada and Hyderabad.
Like the Province of Vijayawada, the sisters of this province are engaged in the pastoral and catechetical activities, in the field of health, education and work for the integral development and of the human promotion.
At present there are 188 sisters in the Province of Hyderabad, most of who are Indians and few Italians. The increasing numbers of sisters in this Province are also sent as missionaries in other parts of the world where the Institute is already present.
On 11th March 1984 at Kalchini the first community in North India was opened responding to the invitation of Bishop of Jalpaiguri Diocese. Just like the beginning of the mission in India was started by six Italian sisters, in the same way, six sisters were sent to begin our presence in the North East regions of India.
In 1996, the communities in West Bengal and Manipur were opened depending on the Vijayawada province, with the delegation house at Siliguri. In 2005, Siliguri was erected as province and today it comprises of 60 sisters.
In the seven states of the North East, there are present 182 tribal communities. The sisters carry out the educational activities; work in the field of health, work for the well-being and development, in favor of the tribal people and work mostly in the midst of them.
The evangelization work is done in the multicultural and multilinguistic context, among the various challenging situations of families like alcoholism and poverty as well as of fundamentalism.
The Delegation of Delhi established from the division of Hyderabad province was erected on 25th March 2009 according to the orientations of the IX General Chapter of 2006. The diversification of North and South India and the difficulties of the great distance of the North West communities have made us to establish these communities as a Delegation dependent on the Hyderabad Province. The purpose is to make the communication between the communities and the Delegation much easier so as to have a better understanding of the local realities, needs and to coordinate better the apostolic activities.
The sisters who belong to this Delegation are 38 and all of them are Indians.
The activities that are carried out are: pastoral and catechetical work in the parishes, village apostolate, health and hospital pastoral care, education and hostels for children. The Christian presence is still a minority in the Northwest of India and the work of proclamation and witness is always identifiable as the first evangelization.
Our presence in Bangladesh started on 15th November1953, when the first three sisters Annunciata Dragoni, GermanaBarbè and Carmela Corti arrived in East Pakistan, as it was then called Bangladesh.
The decision to open this new mission was taken responding to the invitation of Msgr. Obert, PIME and Bishop of Dinajpur.
In the beginning, the sisters were dependent on the province of India. From 1963 onwards the communities have been erected as an organism. At present, Bangladesh is a province comprising of 55 sisters, majority of whom are Bangladeshis and few Italians, Brazilians, Indians, and a Chinese sister who carry out the missionary activities together.
The sisters carry out the first proclamation in the villages, engage themselves in the pastoral work in the parishes, with young people and teach in the schools. They run hostels to favour scholastic education, dispensaries for the poorest and sewing centres for the development of women. They are involved in Hansen and Tuberculosis prevention and treatment projects by running a hospital at Khulna and Dhanjuri.
The situations mainly represent a challenge in Bangladesh, other than the witness and proclamation of the Christian faith in a predominantly Muslim country. The sisters had to face the problem of social condition of marginalization of women, responding to the needs of the human promotion and to support the young people with their problems.
Our Bangladeshi sisters have also been sent to participate in the universal mission of the Church such as Papua New Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon and Brazil.
The presence of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate started in Hong Kong on 11th September 1968.
The first two sisters were Maddalena Pirodda (from Italy) and Theresa Pathickal (from India). At present there have been born local vocations from this mission and they are destined to Papua New Guinea, Brazil and Bangladesh.
The first apostolate undertaken was education by starting a high school named as Paul VI (click on the external link: https://www.ppaulvi.edu.hk), the first secondary school for girls in the New Territories of Hong Kong, which at that time was still in progress.
Presently, Hong Kong mission consists of 13 sisters: one Chinese and other sisters from three nationalities (Indians, Italians, Brazilians). We are engaged full time in the pastoral work in the parishes, in the school and in the hospitals, in teaching, and we regularly go to the mainland China.
Evangelization in an immense, frantic financial centre and in a metropolis city like Hong Kong and the opening of the continental China are the challenges that we, Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate face and for whom we want to dedicate ourselves in communion with the local Church.
