Save A Family Plan

Save A Family Plan

SAFP is a Canadian international development organization and a registered charity in Canada and the United States. SAFP encourages those from developed countries to work for justice and social change by assisting poor families and communities in India through a myriad of developmental activities under two main programs: Family Development and Community Development.  SAFP began with inspiration received from Pope Paul VI at the International Eucharistic Congress in Bombay (now Mumbai), India in December 2-5, 1964. Monsignor Augustine John Kandathil (Father Gus), a priest from the Archdiocese of Ernakulam, South India, heard the appeal by Pope Paul VI to the world to join him in a non-violent battle against poverty and hunger in countries like India. SAFP was born in 1965, assisting five poor families in the south-western state of Kerala, India.

SAFP supports 85 organizations all over India to implement various developmental programmes. Family Development Programme is one of its key developmental initiatives and SAFP supports 12,800 families in India. We gratefully acknowledge that out of them, 273 families are of our Archdiocesan SAFP.

Fr. Augustine was born in Vaikom, Kerala, South India on May 5, 1920; was ordained a Catholic Priest in 1947 and served in a small parish in Angamaly. Father Gus retired as the Executive Director of SAFP Canada in 1989 and returned to India to become the President of SAFP India. He remained firmly at the helm until he retired from his beloved SAFP in 1999.  He moved to a priest retirement home where he lived out his last years in prayer and contemplation. He died on July 18, 2001. On Father Gus' tombstone in his home parish in Vaikom, are carved the words,"The Poor Deserve the Best".