Simple smiles run deep with joy when parents are empowered to provide for their children. With your help, we can bring the same blessing to more families like this one.
In developing nations around the world, families remain trapped in poverty — not because they lack determination but because they lack opportunity. Nearly half the world lives on less than $5.50 a day, and about 1.7 billion adults have no access to basic banking services (World Bank). With little to no capital or financial support, parents have no way to start businesses, increase their income or provide stable futures for their children.
Microenterprise programs allow Cross Catholic Outreach to help change that story. With the support of generous donors, vulnerable families will receive microloans, business training and necessary resources like livestock and tools. Even a modest investment will enable a mother to open a market stall or a farmer to expand production. With God’s grace, parents will be empowered to lift their families out of poverty, strengthen their communities and uphold their human dignity.
Working with local dioceses, religious communities and ministries in Africa, the Caribbean and Central America, we can reach waiting families who are faithfully praying for the chance to build a better future. Your gift will provide the “hand up” that they need. Please help these vulnerable families stand on their own — not only meeting their needs for today but also strengthening them for generations to come.
Not long ago, young Fraynallah was malnourished and lacked the energy to make it through everyday tasks. Her walk to school in rural Malawi wore her out. Even carrying a bucket of water was too much. She tried to join in and play with her friends, but her body couldn’t keep up.
Then her mother began building a small business with help from the Diocese of Karonga’s economic empowerment program, and life at home slowly began to change. Modest loans helped build a growing business that has benefited Fraynallah’s entire family.
Now that her household can afford more consistent, nutritious meals, Fraynallah is growing stronger day by day. She walks to school, participates in class and plays carefree with her friends! She especially loves English and hopes to become a teacher one day.
Working with our in-country partners, Cross Catholic Outreach is committed to helping even more children grow, learn and dream of a brighter future.
HAITI
Instability and gang violence have displaced nearly 1.3 million people across Haiti. Many families have found refuge in communities served by the Kobonal Haiti Mission — a place now known for safety, faith and hope. For more than three decades, the mission has worked to transform lives and foster faith and neighborly love. Since 2003, Cross Catholic Outreach has partnered with the mission, supporting its efforts to help as many families as possible move beyond poverty. The mission’s microenterprise program provides low-interest microloans and business skills training. Beneficiaries repay their loans, and the funds are reinvested into the program.
MALAWI
Cross Catholic Outreach has collaborated with the Diocese of Karonga in Malawi since 2019, empowering the community’s most vulnerable families with life-changing interventions. The diocese’s microenterprise program provides training for 250 households, teaching men and women basic business principles and helping them develop their own small-business plans. Programs include training families in business management skills, establishing and training families in Village Savings and Loan Associations, connecting participants with microfinance lending institutions, and providing training in loan management. As part of its agriculture project, the diocese provides participating families with innovative agricultural training on modern techniques such as drip irrigation and low-cost fertilizer production. Shared “practice fields” allow participants to test new methods before applying them to their own plots, helping them achieve better harvests even during droughts.
GUATEMALA
The Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima is located about 40 miles southwest of Guatemala City. It serves dozens of poor farming communities, many of which started as resettlements for people displaced by the country’s brutal civil war. Cross Catholic Outreach first connected with the diocese in 2013 to build homes for earthquake survivors. That collaboration led to a long-term partnership. Since then, our shared vision for empowering the poor has helped lift many families out of abject poverty — all while lifting up the mighty name of Christ. The diocese’s microenterprise program provides small business loans and training to 100 families in four communities. Beneficiaries use the funds to operate storefronts, raise livestock, and invest in irrigation and other agricultural improvements.
Your generous gift will put critical resources in the hands of parents who are longing to provide for their families. Through modest business loans and training, women and families will be positioned to start or grow small businesses while farmers receive seeds, tools and guidance to improve their harvests and diversify their crops. Households will be able to raise goats, chickens and other livestock; establish home and community gardens; and join local savings groups. Young people, too, will receive hands-on training and education to build their skills for future success. Over time, these efforts will help families establish the stability they pray for. Together, we can enable them to move forward with hope, trust in God’s provision and take pride in the work of their hands.
In many developing countries, families work small plots of land with little margin for failure. A poor harvest or the loss of an animal can be catastrophic and devastate a family’s food security. By providing modest loans for seeds and livestock, along with practical training on how to care for crops and animals, we can help farmers improve their harvests, feed their children, repay what they’ve borrowed and move forward with greater stability.
All too often, families have skills and ideas but lack the capital to start or grow small businesses. Even small-scale opportunities can remain out of reach without access to financing or guidance. Cross Catholic Outreach and our local ministry partners provide access to microloans, along with resources and other helpful support, to help families start market stalls, bakeries, tailoring businesses and other trades. As these ventures grow, they bring in steady income, helping families meet daily needs and break the cycle of poverty.
Even a single animal can make the difference between getting by and going without, but many families don’t have the means to purchase and care for livestock. Equipped with animals like goats or chickens, along with technical support from our ministry partners, struggling families are seeing great success. As their animals grow, reproduce and provide milk, eggs or income, families gain a reliable source of nourishment and a path to a brighter future.
Evelyn never expected to become a soap maker. For nearly two decades, she has worked as a seamstress in the Diocese of Wa, sewing clothes for her children and clients from a small shop her late husband built. When he died, she was left to raise three children on her own, relying on a trade that is steady only in certain seasons — Christmas and Easter — when demand for new clothes is higher. Like many women in her community, she understands all too well what it means to stretch very little to make ends meet.
When she received a modest $45 loan through the diocese’s microenterprise program, she decided to try something new. Rather than ending her sewing career, soapmaking has provided additional income to help her family survive the slow months. The additional earnings have been enough to keep her children in school and cover basic needs.
“I used to not have a lot of hope for the future,” Evelyn admitted. A Catholic, she shares how her faith has steadied her through times of struggle. Holy scriptures on patience and self-control became especially meaningful after her husband’s death, and she describes her life now with gratitude built through endurance. Many families in her community face the same uncertainties, and she prays often for people like you who are helping lift them up.
“I am so, so, so happy,” she said, “and I pray for the donors to continue to help others.”
Auri feeds fish in the pond behind her parents’ retail stand in the village of El Remolino, Guatemala, where they are raising and selling tilapia, thanks to microloans provided by the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima.
When a mother lays out the goods she has carefully chosen to sell in her village shop, or when a father can finally afford to buy the tools of his trade, everything begins to change for that family. Small, faithful steps grow into something steadier and sustainable. Through microenterprise programs, families are not given a handout but a way forward — one rooted in their own effort, talent and God-given gifts. Income becomes more reliable, children stay in school, and daily life is no longer a matter of survival.
The generosity of Catholics like you helps make these answered prayers possible. It places needed resources into capable, waiting hands. Please give now to help families build a life no longer marked by poverty but by purpose and renewed hope!
Women sell fresh produce at a market stall in the Diocese of Karonga, where an economic development program is helping families build more stable livelihoods. Many others are still waiting for the same opportunity.
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 & Central America and South America.
Thank You for Your Special Commitment to Serving the Poor!
It’s easy to shop through the Cross Catholic Outreach Project Catalog. Simply browse the categories and choose an item within your budget and close to your heart, such as Anti-Trafficking and Girls’ Rescue or Most Urgent Needs. Select and sponsor one or more of these gifts, and you’ll make a meaningful impact on the life of a needy child or family. It’s that simple!
Absolutely! Once you select your items, you’ll be given the option of sending an e-card or printing a customizable certificate. This is a meaningful way to share Christ’s love with others while also honoring friends and family.
We are a Catholic ministry that partners with bishops, priests, religious and lay workers to provide Food, Water & Health, Housing, Kids & Education, Women & Girls, Disaster Relief, Farming & Loans opportunities and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ to the poor and vulnerable in over 30 countries around the world.
Donations from this campaign will be used to cover any expenditures for this project incurred through June 30, 2027, 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.
