by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
For individuals in Peru living with HIV, tuberculosis, or other serious illnesses, access to consistent, informed healthcare can determine whether a diagnosis becomes manageable or becomes a crisis. Stigma surrounding these conditions can further complicate access to care, as patients may delay seeking treatment out of fear of how they will be perceived or treated by others.
Maryknoll supports Sí, da Vida, a community-based ministry that helps vulnerable Peruvians access medical care, psychosocial support, education, and advocacy services related to HIV, tuberculosis, and other serious health conditions. The program emphasizes early diagnosis and consistent treatment support, recognizing that both early intervention and sustained follow-up are critical to positive long-term health outcomes.
This ministry’s name, meaning ‘Yes, to Life,’ directly reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, insisting that a serious diagnosis never diminishes a person’s inherent worth. It also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of confronting stigma and isolation with steady, compassionate presence, standing publicly with those whom fear and misunderstanding too often push toward the margins of community life.
Gifts to this project support medical care, psychosocial support, and community outreach that help individuals facing HIV, tuberculosis, and other serious illnesses in Peru receive the care, dignity, and compassion they deserve.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 3, 2026
In many underserved communities in Kenya, access to skilled maternal healthcare remains limited, and the consequences can be severe. Complications during pregnancy or delivery that would be routinely managed in a well-equipped hospital can become life-threatening when skilled care, clean facilities, or emergency transport are unavailable, contributing to preventable maternal and infant deaths.
Maryknoll helps ensure that women in these communities receive skilled medical care throughout pregnancy, childbirth, and the postnatal period. The program provides prenatal visits that help identify complications before they become emergencies, safe and attended deliveries, and postnatal follow-up care for both mother and newborn during the critical weeks after birth.
Few Catholic Social Teaching principles are as directly embodied in a single ministry as the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, honored here at its most vulnerable and hopeful moment, the birth of a child. This service also reflects Maryknoll’s charism of standing with families at decisive moments of human life, offering a trained, compassionate presence precisely when mother and newborn are most exposed to preventable harm.
Gifts to this project support prenatal visits, safe deliveries, and postnatal care that give mothers and their newborns the strongest possible start, reducing preventable complications and strengthening families from the very beginning of a child’s life.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
Drought, crop failure, and rising food costs have made hunger a persistent reality for many families across Kenya. In communities where subsistence farming is the primary source of both food and income, a single failed harvest can quickly translate into empty pantries, malnourished children, and impossible choices between food, medicine, and school fees.
Maryknoll coordinates emergency food assistance efforts that deliver staple foods to families, schools, and healthcare facilities across affected regions of Kenya. For many children, the meals provided through schools and community centers represent their primary, and sometimes only, reliable source of nutrition each day, making consistent food assistance essential not just for survival but for children’s ability to learn and grow.
Feeding the hungry stands among the oldest expressions of Catholic Social Teaching’s Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, and this project’s flexible, need-driven response reflects the principle of Solidarity, recognizing that a crisis anywhere in the community is everyone’s concern. It also reflects Maryknoll’s charism of remaining present and responsive in moments of acute need, ensuring that families experiencing hunger are met not with distant charity but with direct, personal accompaniment.
Gifts to this project provide staple foods to families and institutions facing acute hunger, offering both immediate nutritional relief and the reassurance, especially valuable in moments of crisis, that a community has not been forgotten.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
Lobur sits in one of Kenya’s most remote and underserved regions, where the nearest hospital may be hours away over difficult terrain. For families in this area, a treatable illness or complicated childbirth can become life-threatening simply because adequate medical care is so far out of reach. High rates of poverty and malnutrition compound these risks, particularly for young children.
The Lobur Mission Dispensary, supported by Maryknoll, provides a critical point of access to healthcare for thousands of people who would otherwise have little to none. Services include general illness treatment, maternal and child healthcare, mobile clinics that extend care to even more isolated households, and emergency referrals for cases requiring more advanced treatment than the dispensary can provide.
In one of Kenya’s most remote regions, this dispensary embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, affirming that geographic isolation does not diminish anyone’s claim to basic healthcare. It also reflects Maryknoll’s founding charism of going to the peripheries, to places the institutional Church and broader society often overlook, and remaining there as a consistent, trustworthy presence for families with nowhere else to turn.
Gifts to this project provide medicine, transportation, medical supplies, and staffing support that keep the Lobur Mission Dispensary functioning as a lifeline for families in one of Kenya’s most isolated regions.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
Orphaned and vulnerable youth across parts of Kenya often face an especially difficult set of circumstances: responsibility for younger siblings, no steady income, and limited options for continuing their education. Without some source of livelihood, many are forced to leave school early, cutting off longer-term opportunities in order to meet immediate survival needs.
Maryknoll is helping these young people build sustainable livelihoods through small-scale poultry farming. Participants receive chickens, ongoing veterinary support, and training in both animal care and basic business skills, equipping them to manage a small enterprise rather than simply receive a one-time handout. As their flocks grow, participants gain a renewable source of income through egg and poultry sales, along with improved food security for their own households.
This project reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principles of the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable and the Dignity of Work, recognizing that young people carrying adult responsibilities deserve both compassion and the practical tools to build a sustainable livelihood. It also carries forward Maryknoll’s charism of empowering rather than simply assisting, forming young people capable of supporting themselves and their families with dignity rather than remaining dependent on ongoing outside aid.
Gifts to this project provide chickens, veterinary care, and business training that help orphaned and vulnerable youth generate their own income, stay in school, support younger siblings, and build a more hopeful path toward adulthood.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
Music has a distinctive power to inspire, unite, and transform the lives of those who create it, offering benefits that extend well beyond artistic skill alone. For young people in particular, sustained participation in a structured musical program can build discipline, teamwork, and confidence in ways that carry over into other areas of their lives.
The St. Cecilia String Orchestra brings together young people, parents, teachers, and volunteers in a program that promotes artistic growth alongside Christian values and community spirit. Through regular rehearsals, performances, and shared musical goals, participants develop not only technical musical ability but also the discipline and teamwork that come from working toward a collective artistic achievement.
Forming young musicians reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Call to Family, Community, and Participation, building bonds among young people, families, and volunteers around a common artistic and spiritual goal. This project also reflects Maryknoll’s charism of forming the whole person, recognizing that beauty and creativity, no less than direct service, can be genuine expressions of a life of faith.
Gifts to this project support instruments, instruction, and program costs that nurture the artistic talent and character of young people while fostering a vibrant, connected Catholic community in Taiwan.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
Healing, in the fullest sense, involves far more than treating physical symptoms in isolation. Many individuals carry emotional, psychological, and spiritual burdens alongside physical ailments, yet the professional services that could help address these deeper needs, counseling, therapy, and complementary treatments, often remain financially out of reach for lower-income families.
Maryknoll supports a holistic healing ministry that provides access to counseling, acupuncture, group therapy, and broader emotional support for individuals who otherwise could not afford these services. By offering a range of complementary approaches under one program, the ministry allows participants to engage with whichever form of support best suits their particular needs and circumstances.
Treating counseling, therapy, and complementary care as a unified whole reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, understanding each individual as a unity of body, mind, and spirit rather than a collection of separate needs. This ministry also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of integral human development, addressing the full person rather than isolating physical symptoms from the emotional and spiritual burdens that so often accompany them.
Gifts to this project provide access to counseling, acupuncture, and group therapy that help participants find healing, hope, and renewed strength across every dimension of their wellbeing.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
For nearly three decades, individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS in São Paulo have turned to Maryknoll for compassionate, consistent support through the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual challenges that accompany a serious, chronic illness. The ministry’s longevity reflects both the ongoing need in the community and the trust it has built over many years of dedicated service.
Through home visits, hospital visits, individual and group counseling, educational programs, advocacy, and referrals to additional services, this ministry addresses the full range of needs that individuals facing HIV/AIDS commonly experience, recognizing that medical treatment alone rarely addresses the isolation, stigma, and emotional strain that often accompany the diagnosis.
Nearly three decades of continuous presence in São Paulo embody the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Solidarity, a sustained commitment that has outlasted the shifting attention many institutions have given to the HIV/AIDS crisis over the years. This ministry reflects Maryknoll’s founding charism of long-term accompaniment, choosing to remain rooted in a community’s struggle rather than moving on once initial urgency has faded from public awareness.
Gifts to this project support home visits, counseling, and advocacy that help restore dignity and offer hope to individuals and families in São Paulo facing the challenges of HIV/AIDS.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Mar 5, 2025
Widows and single mothers in Tanzania frequently carry the full weight of providing for their families, often without the social safety net, inheritance rights, or economic opportunities that might otherwise ease the burden. Many struggle to secure enough food, safe housing, healthcare, and school fees for their children, with little margin for unexpected setbacks like illness or crop failure.
Maryknoll helps these families move toward a more secure and self-sufficient future through a combination of practical support and skills development. Assistance includes vocational and skills training that helps women generate their own income, agricultural support for families who rely on farming, healthcare assistance, home repairs for structurally unsound housing, and financial aid to cover urgent needs.
This project reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, with particular attention to widows and single mothers, figures given repeated priority throughout Scripture, and the Dignity of Work, equipping women to provide for their families through their own skill and labor. It also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of accompaniment, walking alongside women rebuilding their lives after loss or abandonment rather than offering assistance from a distance.
Gifts to this project provide skills training, agricultural assistance, healthcare, and home repairs that help widows and single mothers in Tanzania build lasting stability and a better future for their children.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Feb 14, 2024
Advances in HIV treatment mean that people living with the virus in Kenya are now living significantly longer lives than in previous decades, a genuine public health success. This longevity, however, has introduced a new set of challenges: many patients now face age-related and treatment-related conditions such as diabetes and hypertension, conditions that require ongoing management well beyond HIV care alone.
Maryknoll supports an outpatient clinic that has adapted to meet this evolving need, offering affordable medical care for patients managing diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions associated with long-term antiretroviral treatment. The clinic does not limit its services to HIV patients alone; it also serves low-income families throughout the surrounding community who otherwise have limited access to affordable healthcare.
This clinic reflects the Catholic Social Teaching understanding that healthcare flows from the Life and Dignity of the Human Person and the broader Rights and Responsibilities owed to every person in community. As the clinic has adapted to serve patients with chronic, age-related conditions alongside its original HIV mission, it also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of responding to real and evolving human need rather than remaining bound to a fixed, unchanging model of service.
Gifts to this project help sustain affordable outpatient care for patients managing complex, long-term health conditions, ensuring that improved life expectancy from HIV treatment translates into genuinely healthier, more stable lives.
