The Congregation of the Sister Servants of the Visitation is an international missionary congregation, founded in 1978 by Mother Vincenza Minet in Assisi, Italy.  It is a young congregation and at present serving on five continents:  Europe, South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.  The Charism of the congregation is to renew the visit of Our Lord to the humanity today, in the spirit of Magnificat; to live and transmit to others, like Mary, the joy of salvation to all, and to serve, with particular care, the most vulnerable and the most needy. Where the SSV Congregation is present, the SSV Sisters commit their lives to caring assistance for the sick, special needs children, and impoverished individuals and families whom God brings to their door. There are fourteen SSV missions in the poorest areas of the world. Guardians of the Visitation in the United States supports the SSV missions worldwide with a particular focus on the needs of the Kenya and the Philippines missions.

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The Mission Aid Home in Brgy. Bato, Borongan City, Eastern Samar, Philippines, devotes particular care to children who are malnourished, neglected, orphaned, physically or mentally disabled, victims of violence, children of jobless single mothers, and children of the incarcerated. The Sisters provide the love and security fundamental to the development of healthy individuals.   

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The Mission was opened through the grace and intervention of God when Mother Foundress met the late Monsignor Angelo Saverio Zanisi in Borongan in 1988.  Msgr. Zanisi asked for the assistance of the SSV Sisters to expand his mission of providing medical aid to the poor of Borongan. The benevolent priest purchased a house and lot to serve as a convent for three Italian SSV Sisters.  The convent served as a temporary shelter for two malnourished minors who were taken into the Sisters' care.  The charity work of the missionary Sisters eventually reached out to the nearby communities. With the help of Divine Providence, a residential facility, Ain Karim Children's Home, was built for the continued purpose of caring for the neglected poor.

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SSV programs assist patients in the provincial hospital, especially those in critical situations. They offer programs for short-term and long-term care for severely malnourished children at their residential care home and a nutrition program for children living with their families. These programs provide food, supplements, and continued monitoring of children through a schedule of home visits until the children fully recover their health.  SSV also sponsors a scheduled feeding program for the children who are living in the upstream areas of Borongan. In these upstream areas, the SSV Sisters make home visits to the very poor. Their educational outreach programs sponsor children in their studies with tuition, books, backpacks, transportation, and allowance for school lunch and snacks. The Sisters are also trying to help families augment their income by providing livelihood training and some financial assistance to improve the economic security of the family.  Their plans are not yet fully realized because of the lack the financial resources to grow these programs. The Guardians of the Visitation and the SSV Sisters wish to improve current programs and to extend all their services to other remote areas of Eastern Samar.

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The SSV Mission in Ol Moran, Laikipia County, Kenya, celebrates 26 years of service to God's people in the parish of St. Mark Catholic Church. Sr. Mary Gartimu, SSV, is the local superior of the Ol-Moran Mission. The SSV Mission-Ol Moran is located in a rural savanna area that is home to several tribes of people, predominantly farmers and shepherds. The parish is one thousand square kilometers, five hours northwest of Nairobi. The eleven SSV Sisters serving in this mission focus on the needs and care of the elderly, sick, the abandoned, and the mentally and physically challenged.

 

SSV operates Magnificat House as a home for mentally and physically challenged children and adults abandoned by their families, and the malnourished children brought to them for short-term help when their families cannot help their child thrive. It is also a rescue home for girls who have been violated, girls who have been given into early marriages, and those who have suffered abuse. The children of Magnificat House are cared for in a family atmosphere with particular care to their individual needs. The SSV Mission also oversees the operation of the Catholic Dispensary, serving the medical needs of all people living within the area of St. Mark Parish by providing emergency care, ambulance, medicines, wound care, and follow-up home care to the sick and injured, and accompanying the dying. The SSV Sisters sustain their own livelihood and assist their neighbors by maintaining a small working farm attached to the compound of St. Mark Catholic Parish.  The SSV Sisters also work directly with the pastor of St. Mark's Catholic Church, Rev. Giacomo Basso, to serve the parish through leading apostolates, as formators for Catechists, as sacristans, visiting the sick and homebound parishioners, and assisting at Masses celebrated in the outpost churches. The SSV Sisters also teach catechism at a school for deaf children in the town of Sipili, one hour from Ol Moran.

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