The Sisters Teachers of Saint Dorothy Daughters of the Sacred Hearts were founded in Vicenza in 1836 by the priest Giovanni Antonio Farina. From their foundation, they were defined as 'teachers of proven vocation', women consecrated to the work of charity and the education of the new generations. 
The Dorothean Sisters have always cared for the most fragile through education and health.

Present in the Holy Land since 1927 at the service of the local Church, the congregation later decided to accept Pope Paul VI's wish by setting up an audiophonetic re-education project for Palestinian hearing-impaired children, thus creating the Effetà Institute in Bethlehem.

Here, for over 50 years, the Sisters Teachers of St. Dorothy have been taking in hearing-impaired children and young people, giving them not only education and language rehabilitation, but caring for them every day with love and patience, helping them to regain their dignity. After school they follow the girls to the residential centre, as not all of them can go home to their families. During the afternoons, the sisters guide the girls in their studies and extra-curricular activities. 

In Bethlehem, the Dorothean Sisters take not only the boys but also their families by the hand.