A diploma from St. Catherine Academy in Belize is a VIP pass to good jobs and a living wage; but the prestigious Catholic high school is totally out of reach to poor kids. That’s why a Cross Catholic scholarship to St. Catherine’s is the chance of a lifetime to escape poverty.
It’s that time of year again. Fresh-faced college students are packing up their cars, waving good-bye to their parents, and driving off to a new school year. Similar scenes are happening all around the U.S.—and the world. High up in the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, about 700 excited students are preparing to fill the classrooms of Carmen Pampa University, one of Cross Catholic’s dynamic ministry partners.
When I was a young single mom, the month of August was always a struggle. That’s when I had to get my kid school supplies. I couldn’t afford to get her a whole new wardrobe like some of her schoolmates got because my salary hovered around the U.S. poverty line at the time. But somehow we managed. She always (well, usually) started school with everything she needed.
The students at the Home Incarnate Word boarding homes in Cotahuasi, Peru, gave us an enthusiastic welcome with lots of music and home-made signs. We were serenaded in the afternoon and later that evening with songs in both Spanish and Quechua – the local indigenous language. Then as we departed with Fr. Jose Paz, the kids ran outside in the rain to wish us a final farewell.
When Sister Irene Duval of the Compassionate Franciscan Sisters of the Poor first arrived in the village of Viloux, Haiti, she wanted to serve children—but she couldn’t exactly figure out how, until she discovered a need she could meet with support from Cross Catholic.
Until recently, this entire wing of the Santa Maria de Huachipa school did not exist. The high demand for education in this bleak Peruvian slum has forced continuing, rapid expansion. Case-in-point: student enrollment has jumped from 650 to 900 in just one year!