FOCI's work is in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India. Andhra Pradesh, India's fifth largest state, has 73 million people in an area of 27,000 square kilometers. The state was formed in 1956 by the combination of the old princely state of Hyderabad with Andhra state. The state of Andhra had been formed in 1953 when the Telugu speaking areas were separated from the Madras state. The people of Andhra Pradesh speak predominantly Telugu and Hindi, with Urdu and English also being spoken.

Andhra Pradesh is largely an agricultural state, with over 75% of its people earning their living from the land. It is poor, ranked tenth out of India's 14 major states with per capita income of approximately $300 per year, and with nearly 30% of its population living below the poverty level. It also has a low literacy rate, at 54% of the population, which ranks it 12th out of the same 14 major states in the country.

FOCI's activities are in two districts of Andhra Pradesh. In Hyderabad, a city of more than five million people and the capital of Andhra Pradesh, we run the Astrid Rowe Memorial School (ARMS). This school, serving a very poor neighborhood that is mostly Muslim and mostly day laborers, was started in 1983 and is now the largest in its district, with more than 1200 students. Before ARMS was started, the neighborhood, Karmikanagar, had no school.

FOCI's other activities are located in the Khammam district, two hundred kilometers to the east of Hyderabad. Khammam is a rural district of about 2.2 million people. It is a largely agricultural area, with little industry and no tourism. Over 75% of the people earn their living from the land. Most people are very poor, earning incomes of $0.50 to $1.00 per day from working in the fields, operating small shops or performing manual labor. Literacy rates in the Khammam District are even lower than for Andhra Pradesh as a whole, at 40% of the population (30% for women).