Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor
Meet Urgent Needs
Meet Urgent
Needs
We Are in This Together.
Cross Catholic Outreach remains committed to the meeting urgent needs of our ministry partners around the world.
This commitment includes stopping the transmission of this virus. We believe that our ministry can make a difference by supporting impoverished communities in developing countries that lack the basic resources needed to practice good hygiene and prevent disease.
You can submit your prayer intentions here:
Your Help Is Needed.
Food insecurity poses an increased threat to developing countries. Our poorest brothers and sisters have been hit hard by the effects of COVID-19. Many do not have the access to or the ability to acquire their daily bread.
Your donation to Cross Catholic Outreach supports our ministry partners serving impoverished communities throughout 28 different countries. Together, we can meet the current and ongoing urgent needs of the poor, including food and nutrition, clean water and sanitation, and medical supplies, among many other needs.
Bless the poor with nutrition, improved health and hope.
How Much Does Your Gift Mean?
Your compassion during this challenging time means everything to our ministry partners and the poor they serve. Cross Catholic Outreach receives weekly updates from our partners in the field, including requests for prayers and heartfelt words of gratitude for all that you are doing. Father Francis and the children at St. Francis Home in Meru County, Kenya wanted to share this message of thanksgiving, hope and encouragement — and assure you that you are in their prayers.
At Home and Abroad.
Cross Catholic Outreach is working in the United States and overseas to serve those impacted by COVID-19. Please pray for our ministry partners around the world and for the protection of those they serve. The following shows some of the ways our ministry partners are responding to the needs of the poor.
Belize
Mt. Carmel School Support
One of our partners in Belize, Mount Carmel School Support, provided assistance to 72 families in one week. The teachers at Mount Carmel High School teamed up with missionaries to raise funds and buy food for needy families. Funds provided by Cross Catholic Outreach donors also helped purchase food and cleaning items. The beneficiaries are grateful for the help!
Bolivia
Fundación San Lucas
With the Franciscan Social Center closed due to COVID-19, staff members are focusing on outreach in the field. They are providing medical and dental care and health education for the poor on the periphery of Cochabamba and Chapare.
Dominican Republic
Good Samaritan Hospital
Good Samaritan Hospital, which depends on medical supplies from Cross Catholic Outreach, is collaborating with other hospitals in the area to respond to a drastic increase in COVID-19 patients. The last we heard, the hospital was treating 125 COVID-19 patients and had other people with COVID-19 symptoms waiting to be seen. An ongoing construction project is converting the fourth floor into a space exclusively for the infected, with 25 patient rooms, a nursing station and staff restrooms. At least 10 rooms have been finished so far. Cross Catholic Outreach has been working on logistics to transport air conditioning and ventilation equipment to the hospital as soon as possible, and there is also an urgent need for beds.
Fundación Nueva Alegria
Fundación Nueva Alegria works with vulnerable and at-risk youth across the Dominican Republic. Hygiene packages and 35 lb. bags of food are being given out as part of the batey and barrio pandemic response distributions.
Ecuador
Working Boys Center
In response to the needs of its beneficiary families, the Working Boys Center in Ecuador has reshaped the feeding project that Cross Catholic Outreach supports. Currently, the Working Boys Center is providing food staples to 160 Working Boys Center families, with corresponding educational support for the children. It is also engaging in protective measures to appropriately deal with tensions that arise in families due to ongoing quarantine measures.
El Salvador
Fundación Una Mano Amiga
As increasing numbers of people feel economic strains from COVID-19 in El Salvador, our partners are responding to their communities’ needs in extra-special ways. The video below was put together by Fundación Una Mano Amiga to show how material aid made possible by Cross Catholic Outreach donors is being used to bless those in need.
Guatemala
Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima
This latest shipment of Vitafood from Cross Catholic Outreach to the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima in Guatemala is ready to be distributed to families in need.
Diocese of Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu
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Caminando por la Paz
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El Carmelo Daycare and Feeding
El Carmelo Daycare and Feeding Center is providing food hampers to families in need in one of the most dangerous areas of Guatemala City. This initiative includes elderly persons, those with special needs and widows.
Hogar de la Niña
The sisters of the Little Apostles of the Redemption at the Hogar de la Niña are ensuring that vulnerable families of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima receive their daily bread.
Ghana
St. Mary School Renovations
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Haiti
St. Joseph of the Apparition
Our ministry partners at St. Joseph of the Apparition in Gonaïves, Haiti, say they cannot ignore the hungry. The majority of the population are daily workers who live hand to mouth. The ministry is distributing the stock from the nutritional program supported by Cross Catholic Outreach and purchasing additional food and necessities for family use. Ministry members are also sewing masks.
Honduras
Las Mercedes Nutrition Center
Hunger doesn’t take a break for a pandemic, and our friends at Las Mercedes Nutrition Center in Honduras know that all too well. Their critical work of rescuing and rehabilitating malnourished children is more urgent than ever. Unfortunately, they are understaffed now that five people have tested positive for COVID-19. Previously, the staff had spent three months working and sleeping in the center to avoid public exposure. Now just three caretakers are responsible for 20 children. Gifts from friends like you are the reason these children have food to eat and why this ministry has also been able to provide pandemic relief to the local community.
Kenya
Ewuaso Kedong Kindergarten
One of our ministry partners in Kenya, Father John Fortune, has been saying Mass with a different family three to four times daily, allowing members the opportunity to receive the Holy Eucharist while keeping in compliance with COVID-19 restrictions. Fr. John says, “Heaven is truly being stormed each day and hopefully God will hear our prayers and the virus will not follow the trends of other countries.”
Mexico
In Favor of the Child
In Favor of the Child has been distributing food to families in need. It has had distributions every two weeks so far and hopes to continue distributions through September of this year.
Nicaragua
Casa Alianza
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Nicaragua
Hope Clinic International
COVID-19 testing has been hard to come by in Nicaragua – in part because the government took a soft approach to the COVID-19 problem to avoid further suppressing the country’s already limping economy. But thanks to Cross Catholic Outreach’s generous donors, patients are getting the care and testing they need at Hope Clinic International (Tim’s Clinic). We’ve been able to fund medications, personal protective equipment, laboratory supplies and the PCR reagents needed for COVID-19 tests. This aid is especially critical as epidemiologists have been predicting that Nicaragua is likely in the midst of a new outbreak.
Rainbow Network
One of our partners in Nicaragua, Rainbow Network, has continued to distribute nutritious Vitafood meals to the communities that operate after-school programs.
Fabretto Estelli
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Hope Clinic International
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Peru
Heart of Jesus School
Heart of Jesus School has been providing weekly food distributions to 900 families in the areas surrounding the school. Vitafood, shipped by Cross Catholic Outreach, is included in the food baskets.
Tanzania
Diocese of Geita
Cross Catholic Outreach is supporting Bishop Flavian M. Kassala in his efforts to reduce the impact of COVID-19 in the Diocese of Geita. His Excellency has expressed his gratitude during this challenging time.
United States
Catholic Charities of New Orleans and Catholic Charities of Miami
Our ministry is mobilizing resources to provide over 350,000 servings of baby food and approximately 7,500 hygiene kits to partners including Catholic Charities of New Orleans and Catholic Charities of Miami.
Bless the poor with improved health and hygiene!
Provide essential resources for impoverished communities in developing countries
Who We Are Helping.
Cross Catholic Outreach serves ministry partners in 28 countries.
Many are already working to install safer water systems, provide hygiene education and improve sanitation in poor communities. However, most are finding it extremely difficult to fulfill their missions and secure necessary resources.
Here are just two examples of the work we can support to make a difference.
Clean Water for 11,000 People in Kenya
With COVID-19 cases increasing in Kenya, the government has closed national borders. In the midst of the crisis, Father Fabian Hevi has remained steadfastly committed to serving Kenyans in need. In the dry southern region that runs between the Diocese of Machakos and the Archdiocese of Mombasa, women and children spend hours digging in dry riverbeds or standing in long lines at contaminated sources.
At present, they do not have the resources they need to practice proper hygiene and protect their health.
Two villages in southeastern Kenya will receive:
✔ Boreholes, solar pumps, water storage systems and water kiosks (dispenser units).
✔ Educational seminars regarding borehole maintenance, sanitation, hygiene & agriculture.
✔ Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) committees consisting of responsible community members who will oversee the process & encourage proper practices.
- Highlighted Project -
Clean Water and Sanitary Bathrooms in Nicaragua
At a national level, Nicaragua has no containment measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. As new cases emerge, fears continue to mount.
As one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere, Nicaragua’s under-improved water infrastructure and lack of sanitary latrines remain a significant threat to the nation’s health. In such unsanitary living conditions, many poor villagers suffer from frequent bouts of waterborne illness and kidney disease — leaving their bodies particularly at-risk.
Thankfully, our ministry partners are hard at work to provide deep wells and sanitary latrines for remote, impoverished villages in Nicaragua.
We are providing 201 families in three villages with:
✔ Clean water piped directly into their homes.
✔ Modern bathrooms.
✔ Necessary medical screenings.
✔ Health education on the spread of bacteria.
These projects provide vital help necessary in fighting the spread of Covid-19 in a developing country like Nicaragua.
See Our Other Water Projects in Developing Countries
Distant, Not Divided.
At a time of necessary social distancing, it is important to show the world that the Church is still united.
Our commission to love others, share the Gospel and provide for the poor is still critical. In fact, it may be more necessary than ever before. The world is searching for hope — and it desperately needs the extra measure of mercy only Christ can provide.
Our global family will be safer when we provide for the poorest of the poor.
Meet urgent needs, prevent illness and share Christ’s love.
Thank you for helping protect our world one community at a time.
Answer the Call
Learn how you can engage in projects serving the poor and their communities around the world.
Cross Catholic Outreach
Our mission is to mobilize the global Catholic Church to transform the poor and their communities materially and spiritually for the glory of Jesus Christ. Your gift empowers us to serve the poorest of the poor by channeling life-changing aid through an international network of dioceses, parishes and Catholic missionaries. This cost-effective approach helps break the cycle of poverty and advance Catholic evangelization.
Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2021, the close of our ministry’s fiscal year.
In the event that more funds are raised than needed to fully fund the project, the excess funds, if any, will be used to meet the most urgent needs of the ministry.
