Cross Catholic Outreach

Delivering food, shelter, and hope to the poorest of the poor

Delivering food, shelter and hope to the poorest of the poor.

Ñoño Garcia is one of eight children. At just 12 years old, he is unable to live in the same home as his mother because the house is too small. Your support today can help bring new homes to families around the world, so children like Ñoño can be reunited with their families under one roof.

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Bless Families With Safe Homes

Families in the Dominican Republic’s rural villages have been trapped in poverty for generations. They live in unsafe homes, lack adequate water for their crops and see no way to pursue a better future.

Cross Catholic Outreach is working with our trusted ministry partner FUNDASEP, an outreach of the local Catholic diocese, to provide these struggling families with help and hope — but their ministry team needs your support for their mission of mercy to succeed. Your gift will enable them to repair 17 homes and build 10 safe homes for families in need. These important advancements are part of a larger community transformation initiative. Our goal is to help the poor become self-sufficient by ensuring farms are properly irrigated and needy families receive sturdy homes, are provided with agricultural support, can access microloans and benefit from education programs.

Please give generously so destitute families can be blessed with the resources they need to transform their lives — and their communities. In empowering the work of FUNDASEP, you will be supporting Works of Mercy that will change lives and show these precious families the power of Christ’s never-ending love! 

By empowering the work of FUNDASEP, featured in the EWTN video below, you will bless suffering families with safe homes!

A gift of $11,394 will build a home for one family — but any contribution will be an incredible blessing.

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A woman stands in front of her home holding the eggs she just collected.
Bernarda de los Santos and her husband survive by subsistence agriculture and by finding day labor on local plantations, but their meager wages aren’t sufficient for them to repair their deteriorating home.
A women’s hand shows the rotting wood on the corner of her home.
Bernarda de los Santos points out the rotting wood on the side of her house.
A man prays with families and the Dominican countryside in the background
Families in the Los Callejones community gather to pray and share their needs with FUNDASEP leaders, including Juan Domingo (far left).
A group of men stand on rocks in a brook while discussing the broken infrastructure that they see.
Community leaders gather to discuss the challenges local families face because the community water system in Las Lomas is not functioning properly.
FUNDASEP builds prefabricated homes for families in need. Your support will help make a family’s dream come true.
FUNDASEP builds prefabricated homes for families in need. Your support will help make a family’s dream come true.

Rural Families in Need

Living Without Opportunity

Families in the rural Dominican countryside live in makeshift homes, and their communities lack paved roads and other conveniences. Their crops are withering for lack of water, and an absence of education and job skills training leaves villagers with no other means to earn a living. These hardships make it impossible for them to escape poverty and pursue a better future.

A woman holds a toddler while her child stands next to her looking down a hill.
Aribeli Rosso and her two children stand in front of her small and crumbling home. This is a common situation for poor families in the Dominican Republic.
A photo of Fr. Mike, a dedicated priest who left his hometown in Wisconsin to answer God's call in the Dominican Republic.
Originally from Wisconsin, Fr. Mike followed the Lord’s calling to serve the poor 2,000 miles away in the Dominican Republic. Twenty-seven years later, he considers the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana his family, and as president of FUNDASEP, he strives to be a good shepherd to everyone he encounters.

The Ministry Partner

Bringing Hope to the Poor

FUNDASEP, an outreach of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana, has been offering the love of Christ to poor, rural families since 1992. Since 2005, Cross Catholic Outreach has partnered with FUNDASEP to expand its outreach to more villages, with new homes, water systems, roads, bridges and schools. FUNDASEP is now introducing a community transformation outreach under the leadership of the current president, Father Mike Seis. Community transformation projects address all the factors that harm a community, limit opportunity or take away hope. It is an approach that provides solutions to malnutrition, poor living conditions, the lack of employment and inadequate education.

Works of Mercy

The Blessing of Safe Housing

The villages of the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana will be the first communities to experience the life-changing impact of FUNDASEP’s new community transformation initiative. With access to irrigation, sturdy homes, microloans and education, villagers will have the opportunity to create a bright future. Your support can help us provide safe homes to families through this extraordinary initiative.

A woman and her two children lift their hands in praise for the peach colored home behind them.
Families are filled with joy after receiving a home that provides them with safe shelter.

Change lives by repairing 17 homes and building 10 homes so poor families can have a safe place to live. Each home will include a latrine or modern bathroom to protect health and hygiene.

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construction workers measure and pour concrete plates.
Concrete panels are made in a factory using metal frames and then are assembled at the house site. These panels are far more durable than the makeshift homes families are currently living in.
A man operates a concrete mixer while another man pushes a wheelbarrow full of concrete.
Able-bodied beneficiaries help in the home-building process, creating a greater sense of ownership and pride in their new home.
A green concrete house with a solid roof with trees in the background.
Your gift will ensure that 10 families receive a sturdy, prefabricated home. A huge improvement over the homes of scrap metal, mud and rotting wood many live in currently.

Homes Built to Last

The homes that FUNDASEP builds are prefabricated for easy, on-site assembly and are made from concrete panels. Each modest home has a cement foundation and can withstand up to 90-mile-per-hour winds — a strong defense against tropical storms and hurricanes. They include shuttered windows, solid front doors, electricity, and latrines or modern toilets (depending on the area’s conditions and the availability of running water).

The Garcia Family Needs a House

Marisela Garcia’s one-room rental is too small for her eight children, so she had to make the painful decision of which children should live with her, and which children should live with their nearby grandfather.

Marisela has been able to make room for three of her children: 1-year-old Franklin, 8-year-old Hadelyn and 9-year-old Cristopher.

The cost of renting this tiny living space has pushed the family to sacrifice even further, since it forced Marisela’s husband to move to the city in search of work.

The Garcia family is one of 10 families identified by community leaders to receive a new, safe home. With your help, the Garcia children will all be able to live under one roof — and their father will be able to live at home and be the daily presence they need and deserve.

With your help, FUNDASEP can reunite this family for good. For $11,394 you can build a safe, concrete home that will help a family like Marisela’s thrive!

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Marisela Garcia and her eight children want to live in the same home again —you can make that possible!
Marisela Garcia and her eight children want to live in the same home again —you can make that possible!

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 FUNDASEP 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, your gift will foster lasting transformation by supporting these programs in the Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana.

Education

Construct two classrooms, train 50 community leaders and provide literacy classes to help children and adults achieve their dreams.

Microenterprise

Provide loans and business training for 110 women to start businesses and attain a new level of economic independence.

Agriculture

Equip 90 families with resources and training to strengthen their harvests and livestock production.

Food

Fill stomachs with 816,480 protein-rich meals to fight malnutrition.

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Download the Proposal

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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!

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.