Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor
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Transforming Lives Together in Guatemala
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The gift of a safe home is a life-transforming blessing for a child like Fátima Fernandez.
Shelter Vulnerable Families and Meet Urgent Needs Around the World
In remote, rural communities around the world, extreme poverty prevents families from building safe homes, sending their children to school and even buying their daily bread. Your compassion can bring the miracle they desperately need by providing all of these blessings!
Cross Catholic Outreach works with trusted ministry partners to fund safe housing projects around the world.
For example, our Transforming Lives in Guatemala project will equip two dioceses in Guatemala to build 159 sturdy homes for families who have lived in crumbing dirt-floor dwellings for far too long. The project will also help our partners provide life-changing scholarships for children, distribute nutritious meals for the hungry and deliver many other blessings.
Your support is needed to make this mission possible. Help us meet the urgent needs for housing, education, nutrition and more!
Guatemala’s Housing Crisis
Rural Families Long for Peace and Safety
Nearly 60% of Guatemala’s population lives in poverty, with one in four people earning less than $3.20 a day (CIA World Factbook, The World Bank). More than half the nation’s people live in rural areas, which often lack access to basic infrastructure. Under these circumstances, the poorest families can only afford to build small mud-floor shelters. Their fragile dwellings leave them vulnerable to bad weather, vermin and intruders, and children and the elderly frequently fall ill.
Give now to bless families in Guatemala with greater security, improved health and a tangible reminder of God’s love.
Meet Our Ministry Partners
Building a Foundation of Faith
Under the leadership of their respective bishops, Caritas in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima and the Diocese of Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu are working closely with Cross Catholic Outreach to strengthen local families by delivering humanitarian aid and supporting integral human development.
Caritas Santa Rosa de Lima
Since 2014, Cross Catholic Outreach has supported the diocese’s material and spiritual ministries through programs for faith formation, food, education, agriculture and housing, impacting thousands of families.
Appointed in 2021, Bishop José Cayetano Parra Novo (third from left) has already taken an active role in the compassionate work of Caritas. Here, His Excellency inaugurates the diocese’s first Catholic school.
Caritas Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu
Since 2018, we’ve helped provide food relief, agricultural support and academic scholarships and built two community water systems to strengthen local families. This will be our first housing project in the diocese!
His Excellency Pablo Vizcaíno Prado reviews construction plans for the Diocese of Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu. He has been bishop of the diocese since its inception.
The Moctezuma-Dupont family stands outside their current home. Your generosity will help bless families like theirs with safe new houses.
Building Safer, More Secure Homes
With your help, this outreach will bless 159 families (1,113 individuals) with the gift of safe housing. A typical house will feature:
- A 338 sq. ft. floor plan with three rooms.
- Concrete walls and flooring.
- A galvanized steel roof.
- A secure metal door and shuttered windows.
- A water storage tank.
- A sanitary latrine to promote hygiene and dignity.
- A clean-burning stove to protect lung health.
Cristina’s Plea for Safety
Cristina Yanes pleads to God to keep her children safe. Her stick-and-thatch home cannot keep out the rain — much less pests and intruders.
“I am afraid of someone coming and doing something to me and my children,” Cristina shared.
Answer the prayers of mothers like Cristina by providing strong homes, nutritious food and other desperately needed blessings!
Cristina and her daughter, Mariela, stand outside their home.
Integral Human Development
A Holistic Outreach to Foster Lasting Transformation
Cross Catholic Outreach is committed to transforming lives both materially and spiritually for the glory of Jesus Christ. To accomplish this, we work with partners like Caritas in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima and the Diocese of Suchitepéquez-Retalhuleu to assess the needs of individual communities and develop tailored programs that promote integral human development. Rooted in Catholic social teaching, this Christ-centered approach seeks to help families flourish physically, intellectually, economically and spiritually.
Integral human development addresses all factors that harm the community, limit opportunity or take away hope. In addition to building safe houses, our Transforming Lives in Guatemala project will help foster lasting transformation by supporting these programs in the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima.
Spiritual Outreach
Support seminarians and equip lay leaders to share God’s Word within their communities.
Education
Provide 70 partial scholarships and support a Catholic school to help children achieve their dreams.
Agriculture
Equip 249 families with resources and training to strengthen their harvests.
Food
Fill stomachs with 816,480 protein-rich meals to fight malnutrition.
Floridaima de la Cruz and her children used to live in a crumbling shelter. Today, they have a safe home! Take action to bless more families like theirs.
Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures incurred through June 30, 2023, 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.
What Is Your Legacy Mission?
When you include Cross Catholic Outreach as a beneficiary in your will, trust, retirement account or life insurance policy, you will make a difference for poor communities by meeting both material and spiritual needs for generations to come. Create Your Legacy!