by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
The semi-arid Kibwezi region of Kenya faces a compounding set of environmental pressures: recurring drought, poor harvests, and increasing land degradation that makes it progressively harder for farming families to sustain themselves. As topsoil erodes and water sources become less reliable, the challenges facing one growing season tend to carry over into the next, creating a difficult cycle for local communities to break.
To help address these interconnected challenges, Maryknoll supports a Care of Creation initiative that combines reforestation, renewable energy, and broader environmental stewardship. Drought-resistant trees such as Mukau and Moringa are being planted throughout local parish communities, improving soil fertility, increasing water retention, and reducing erosion, while also providing families with nutritional and economic benefits through their fruit, leaves, and timber.
Directly inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, this project embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Care for God’s Creation, treating environmental restoration and human wellbeing as a single, integrated concern rather than competing priorities. It reflects Maryknoll’s long-standing charism of care for creation as an expression of the Gospel itself, recognizing the land not merely as a resource but as a gift entrusted to humanity’s stewardship.
Gifts to this project support reforestation, clean energy, and environmental stewardship efforts that protect the land, strengthen food security, and improve daily life for farming families confronting the growing effects of climate change.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
In many parts of southeastern Kenya, clean water remains out of reach for daily life. Families, most often women and children, routinely walk long distances, sometimes several hours round-trip, to collect water from sources that are frequently contaminated. The time lost to this task keeps children out of school and limits opportunities for parents to farm, work, or generate income.
Contaminated water also carries serious health consequences. Waterborne illnesses are a leading cause of sickness among young children in the region, placing additional strain on already limited healthcare resources and household finances. Maryknoll is helping address this need directly by constructing a solar-powered well that will provide safe drinking water to thousands of people in the Ndonguni area.
Access to clean water reflects the Catholic Social Teaching conviction that Care for God’s Creation and the Dignity of the Human Person are inseparable; water is both a gift of creation to be stewarded and a basic necessity to which every person has a right. This project also reflects Maryknoll’s charism of responding directly to the concrete, everyday needs of the communities it serves, understanding that dignity begins with something as fundamental as safe water.
Gifts to this project help bring a dependable source of clean water to a community that has long gone without one, reducing illness, freeing up time for school and work, and laying the groundwork for healthier, more secure lives.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Feb 22, 2023
Across Asia, many migrant workers face exploitation, unsafe working conditions, and violations of their basic human rights, often within complex global supply chains that make accountability difficult to trace and enforce. These abuses can range from illegally charged recruitment fees to unsafe labor conditions to outright human trafficking, and workers frequently have little power to address them individually.
Maryknoll works alongside laborers, community organizations, corporations, and government agencies to confront labor abuses, human trafficking, and environmental concerns embedded within global supply chains. Through advocacy, worker education, research into supply chain practices, and structured collaboration with multiple stakeholders, this ministry works to promote ethical business practices and greater respect for human dignity within international commerce.
This project embodies two interconnected Catholic Social Teaching principles, the Dignity of Work and Care for God’s Creation, recognizing that exploitative labor practices and environmental harm frequently share the same root causes within global supply chains. It reflects Maryknoll’s prophetic charism of confronting injustice at its structural source, working directly with corporations and governments rather than addressing only its downstream effects on individual workers.
Gifts to this project support advocacy, research, and worker education that advance justice, protect vulnerable migrant laborers, and promote responsible, ethical business practices across global supply chains.
