Lenten campaign 2026
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Sr. Anne Francioni didn’t expect her life’s work to be saving at-risk kids.
When she first arrived in southeast Missouri, she was there to work at a women’s shelter with her religious order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
But before that, she had trained as a pediatric nurse, and soon she found herself asked to visit sick babies who weren’t making it in to see the doctor.
Venturing down dirt roads and through rural woods, Sr. Francioni was heartbroken to find children living in great poverty and neglect.
She couldn’t understand why more wasn’t being done to help them. She told Aleteia:
I had spent a little time in parts of West Africa where they don't have anything, but they're taking care of their kids. What's going on in our country? We have enough in this country that all these kids could be taken care of, if we allocate funds and resources and talent in a way that says our children and their families should have priority.
She began visiting the children regularly and helping their parents and families learn and grow. But the work was far more than one woman could do alone. So it began to grow.
Reaching 20,000 families
In 1999 she started Whole Kids Outreach (WKO), a faith-based, nonprofit service organization that cares for children and families. This ministry serves 11 counties in the Missouri Ozarks — an area covering 8,000 square miles.
The families she works with experience higher than state averages of food insecurity, substantiated child abuse, inadequate prenatal care, teenage pregnancy, infant mortality rates, and preventable child hospitalization.
But thanks to Sister Anne’s resourcefulness and the services provided by WKO, the statistics for families in WKO’s programs are incredible.
For example, infant mortality is astoundingly high in the 11 counties WKO serves. Families not served by WKO are eight times more likely to experience infant mortality than those participating in their programs.
Now in its 27th year, WKO has served over 20,000 families. That means hundreds, if not thousands, of babies are alive today because of Sr. Anne.
One thing that sets WKO apart is its flagship program of home visits. Staff bring tangible support in real, long-term relationships that change these families’ lives.
Families find their lives and futures changed for the better after their encounters with WKO. Sr. Anne said:
In so many cases, the relationship between Whole Kids Outreach and the family and the doctor and everybody else helping them means the trajectory of that family's life is changed.
Yes, there’s good networking, good case management, and good clinical work, but what changes things is the relationship and the ongoing belief in people.
I have a million stories, and even in very difficult situations, we see lots of good come from it.
Besides the flagship Maternal-Child Nursing Home-Visit programs, kids involved with WKO benefit from many other programs such as horseback riding, summer camp, Christmas Store, and Community Fall Days.
27 years of stepping out in faith
Every year of WKO’s operation has been something of a miracle. It took a lot of courage to get started and to keep going year after year. Sr. Anne recalled:
When we made our first business plan, oh my goodness, it didn't work. The bottom line was very red. But I said, let's do it anyway. If God wants this to work, it will.
If you just look at the numbers, and you don't look through the lens of faith and trust, it never looks like it’s going to work. We have to trust and step out in faith anyway, and keep stepping out in faith every day.
That's what I’ve learned over many years—that somehow, it's going to work. I don't know how yet, and every year we always have this line in the budget called “To be found.” But if it is supposed to work, it will, and I just have to be faithful.
Sr. Anne’s work is so deeply rooted in personal relationship that it takes lots of very committed people to scale it up to meet the needs of the community. Over the years she’s built a big team of excellent people—but there is still so much more work that needs to be done, so many more kids who need their help.
Donate here to support Sr. Anne and these young kids in need — and let’s keep working and praying for a world where all kids are valued and given priority.
