Our History

In 1869, Clementina Butler and Lois Parker, wives of missionaries to India, made a plea to a group of eight women in Boston about the spiritual and physical needs of poor women in India. They could not be treated by male doctors. Schooling for girls was almost non-existent. Help was desperately needed.

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In what would become a lasting legacy of “showing up and getting things done,” the attendees were moved to action. They quickly called another meeting of more women. They wrote a constitution. And in short order, they organized the Methodist Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society (WFMS).

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By November 1869, the newly formed organization raised funds and sent educator Isabella Thoburn and Dr. Clara Swain to India.

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Ms. Thoburn began a school with just six young girls that went on to become Isabella Thoburn College, Asia’s first women’s college. Dr. Swain’s medical work resulted in the first women’s hospital in Asia. Both institutions continue to serve the people of India today.