Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor
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Share Hope in the Dominican Republic
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Change Lives in the Dominican Republic
While the Dominican Republic is known for its beautiful beaches and relaxing resorts, the country also has high levels of poverty, especially in rural areas. There, families struggle to survive through subsistence farming or by cutting sugarcane, a job that only pays a few dollars a day.
Fortunately, Catholic ministries in the Dominican Republic are helping to change this situation. Cross Catholic Outreach is partnering with ministries like FUNDASEP, the outreach arm of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, an organization meeting the material and spiritual needs of local families. FUNDASEP was founded by the “Backpack Bishop,” José Grullón Estrella. By providing nutritious food, clean water, safe housing and medical care, we can share God’s love with the people of the Dominican Republic and restore their hope!
Join us to be the hands and feet of Christ to the poor around the world!
Cross Catholic Outreach's ministry partners were recently featured on EWTN News In Depth. Watch the video to be inspired by the Church's work in the Dominican Republic!
Water Makes Dreams Come True
For many years, Arielady Beltre and her family (pictured to the right) collected their daily water from a nearby mountain stream in a rural community in the Dominican Republic. But thanks to Cross Catholic Outreach supporters, her community has since been blessed with a new well that delivers safe water directly to her home.
“I had such a big smile the first time we turned on the water,” said Seneyra, Arielady’s mother. “It is such a blessing to be able to turn on a faucet instead of going to the mountain. Now the moment we wake up in the morning, we take a shower. Just to be able to take a shower, it is such a difference.”
Your support can provide hope for more Dominican families waiting for an answer to prayer!
Arielady Beltre (right) celebrates the water system in her community with her brothers and sisters.
Water
Community Water Systems
For the Beltre family and others who have been drinking from contaminated sources, FUNDASEP’s water systems are a literal godsend. These large-scale custom systems use solar energy, electrical power and gravity to pipe clean, abundant water directly into each family’s house. This is an answer to prayer for families who had been walking miles a day to collect their drinking water!
FUNDASEP’s approach to helping the poor is doubly effective because it avoids giving handouts and instead involves individuals and communities in the field work being done. The local families form work brigades, hold meetings and take long-term ownership of these new resources. Unity and the value of hard work are promoted as participants commit to invest their own time, money and prayers in the project. FUNDASEP coordinates with parish priests, who conduct blessings, say special Masses, lead prayers and help ensure that the greatest needs are being met.
Share clean water and hope!
A classroom full of children eat Vitafood provided by friends of Cross Catholic Outreach.
Food
Delivering Nutritious Food to Families in Need
Cross Catholic Outreach regularly sends Vitafood — a fortified rice, potato or lentil product designed to meet the needs of malnourished bodies. Your support can help us ship this food to our ministry partners in the Dominican Republic that will distribute it to hungry children and families. An improved diet will reduce the risk of stunting and hunger-related illness and will help children excel in school and in their overall development.
Our ministry partners in the Dominican Republic are feeding immigrant families who work in the sugarcane fields, providing relief during natural disasters, and equipping orphanages and churches to feed the vulnerable.
Help feed the hungry with Vitafood!
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The Paula family is thankful for the home built for them by FUNDASEP.
Housing
Safe Shelter Transforms Lives
Flimsy walls. Dirt floors. Leaky roofs. Unfortunately, many impoverished families in the Dominican Republic live in unsafe conditions like these. To address the problem, Cross Catholic Outreach partners with ministries like FUNDASEP and the Batey Relief Alliance to bless families with safe, new homes. FUNDASEP builds its prefabricated houses with metal frames reinforced with concrete slabs, giving families safe shelter in the often-harsh tropical storm systems. In another part of the country, the Batey Relief Alliance provides sturdy homes for women and children who make their living on the sugarcane fields. Each home is designed with a living room, two bedrooms, a kitchen and a sanitary latrine, giving families a spacious, safe place to call home.
With your help, poor families will no longer be subjected to leaky roofs or fear the collapse of their crumbling, unsafe walls.
Bless families with a safe place to live!
Medical supplies are critical to provide medical care for children and families.
Medical Supplies
Provide Hope and Healing
Families who struggle to feed themselves often put medical care on the back burner. They simply can’t afford the medicines, surgeries or even simple remedies that could change or save their lives. Cross Catholic Outreach ministry partners in the Dominican Republic, such as the New Joy Foundation and Good Samaritan Hospital, provide these families with blessed relief.
Your support will help us deliver medical supplies that will provide critical care to families in need.
Give now and bring hope and healing!
Your support can provide diapers for young children.
Diapers
Support Mothers and Their Babies
Welcoming a new baby into the world should be a joyous time, but for many poor families it can also mean tremendous financial stress. You can help lighten the load for growing families by helping us ship diapers that will be distributed through our ministry partner the New Joy Foundation.
Will you help us build Catholic families by meeting a practical need?
Become a Cross Mission Partner Today
Cross Mission Partners receive this prayer journal, handmade by those we serve in Haiti!
Use it for reflections and notes to grow in your spiritual life. You’ll also receive a prayer request form to mail back so that we can pray for your needs. In effect, this creates a spiritual bridge to connect you to our sisters and brothers in Christ in the developing world!
Cross Mission Partners also receive a semiannual Mission Update with news, insights and information about the good work and accomplishments made possible by your support.
* Every dollar helps us bless the least of our brothers and sisters throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, and South America.
Thank You for Your Special Commitment to Serving the Poor!
Proceeds from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures incurred through June 30, 2024, 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.