by Dionel Rodriguez | Feb 8, 2022
Families across Bolivia face a range of emotional, psychological, and spiritual challenges, from the strains of poverty to the effects of family separation and other significant life stressors. In many communities, professional mental health resources are scarce, and the stigma sometimes associated with seeking psychological help can further discourage individuals and families from pursuing needed support.
Maryknoll provides pastoral counseling and spiritual accompaniment to individuals, couples, children, and families navigating these difficulties. Working alongside professional counselors and psychologists, the ministry offers structured counseling services alongside complementary supports, including literacy programs, after-school assistance for children, home visits for families unable to travel, and broader outreach to vulnerable populations.
This ministry reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, affirming that emotional and psychological wellbeing matter as much as physical health to a life lived in dignity, alongside the Call to Family, which holds up the household as the foundational unit of society. It also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of accompaniment, offering steady, compassionate presence to individuals and families navigating difficulties too often carried in silence.
Gifts to this project support pastoral counseling, literacy programs, and family outreach that help individuals and families find healing, strengthen relationships, and navigate difficult circumstances with renewed hope.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Feb 8, 2022
In some of Nairobi’s poorest neighborhoods, many women raise their children largely on their own, with little financial support and few opportunities for stable employment. Some have fled abusive relationships; others have been widowed or abandoned. Without access to savings, credit, or job training, many struggle simply to keep their children fed, housed, and in school.
Maryknoll works directly with these women to help them build more secure and independent lives. The project provides support for launching small businesses, along with access to healthcare services and assistance covering school-related costs for their children. Rather than offering only short-term relief, the emphasis is on equipping women with practical tools, such as basic business skills and startup capital, that allow them to generate their own steady income over time.
This ministry embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, giving particular attention to mothers and children who carry disproportionate burdens of poverty, and affirms the Dignity of the Human Person by recognizing every woman’s capacity for self-determination. It reflects Maryknoll’s charism of accompaniment, walking alongside women in difficult circumstances rather than simply providing aid from a distance, so that dignity and agency grow together.
Gifts to this project help mothers in difficult circumstances start small businesses, access healthcare, and keep their children in school, creating pathways out of poverty for entire families rather than temporary fixes for a single crisis.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Oct 9, 2020
oung women escaping abuse, trafficking, abandonment, or extreme poverty in Peru often have nowhere safe to turn, particularly when family relationships have broken down or become dangerous. Without a secure place to stay, many face an impossible choice between remaining in harmful circumstances or facing the risks of homelessness, including further exploitation.
La Posadita del Buen Pastor provides shelter, meals, guidance, and support to vulnerable young women seeking a genuine fresh start. Residents receive not only basic physical necessities but also counseling and structured opportunities to begin rebuilding their lives in a safe, nurturing environment, one designed specifically around the needs of young women who have experienced trauma or exploitation.
Sheltering young women fleeing abuse and exploitation embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, affirming that no woman’s worth is diminished by what has been done to her. The shelter’s name, invoking the Good Shepherd, reflects Maryknoll’s charism of seeking out those most at risk of being lost, offering not just refuge but the sustained guidance needed to build a genuinely new life.
Gifts to this project provide shelter, meals, counseling, and guidance that offer vulnerable young women in Peru safety, healing, and a genuine pathway toward independence.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Aug 27, 2020
In Tanzania, individuals living with albinism often face profound social and physical challenges that go well beyond the medical realities of their condition. Harmful myths and superstitions have, in some communities, led to discrimination, social isolation, and in extreme cases, violence directed at people with albinism, particularly children. At the same time, the condition itself brings genuine medical needs, including heightened vulnerability to skin cancer due to a lack of melanin.
Maryknoll works to address both dimensions of this challenge, providing practical medical support alongside broader advocacy and education. Direct assistance includes sun protection supplies essential for preventing skin damage, healthcare services, educational support for children who may face barriers to school enrollment, and emergency assistance for individuals facing acute safety or medical concerns.
This ministry directly embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, insisting that every individual’s worth is inherent and given by God, never contingent on physical appearance or freedom from harmful superstition. It reflects Maryknoll’s prophetic charism of standing with those pushed to the margins by fear and misunderstanding, offering both practical protection and a steady witness against the discrimination that puts lives at risk.
Gifts to this project provide medical care, sun protection, education, and advocacy that protect the safety and dignity of individuals with albinism in Tanzania, while working to change the harmful misconceptions that put them at risk.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Jun 10, 2020
Located in Curicó, Chile, Cristo Resucitado Parish serves a vibrant community facing significant economic hardship, migration-related challenges, and broader social needs. Despite these pressures, the parish remains a vital source of both spiritual life and practical support for thousands of people in the surrounding area.
Working with limited resources, the parish offers faith formation programs, youth activities, educational assistance for families struggling to cover school-related costs, targeted support for immigrants navigating their new life in Chile, and monthly food distributions for families facing food insecurity. This combination of spiritual and material support reflects the parish’s broader role as a comprehensive community resource, not simply a place of worship.
Combining faith formation, food assistance, and support for immigrant families reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, meeting the needs of the whole person rather than the spiritual or material alone. This parish also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of integral mission, understanding evangelization, and direct service to the poor as two expressions of a single Gospel commitment.
Gifts to this project support food distributions, educational assistance, and outreach to immigrant families that help Cristo Resucitado Parish serve as both a spiritual home and a source of practical support for the Curicó community.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Jun 10, 2020
For many people living with HIV/AIDS in Peru, isolation can be as difficult to bear as the physical illness itself. Family members and friends sometimes distance themselves out of fear or misunderstanding, leaving patients to navigate serious medical, emotional, and practical challenges largely on their own, often at precisely the moment they most need support and companionship.
Maryknoll accompanies individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS through a ministry built on presence, advocacy, and practical support. Volunteers and staff make regular visits to homes, hospitals, and shelters, offering not only logistical help but also a consistent human connection to patients who might otherwise feel abandoned by their circumstances.
This project embodies the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Solidarity, a tangible refusal to let illness become a reason for isolation. This ministry also reflects Maryknoll’s founding charism of accompaniment, choosing sustained presence over distant charity and reminding patients, through consistent human contact, that they remain full members of their community rather than people to be quietly set apart.
Gifts to this project support home and hospital visits, access to medication, and emotional accompaniment that remind individuals facing HIV/AIDS in Peru that they are not alone in their illness.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Jun 1, 2020
Women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Peru often face a combination of medical, economic, and social challenges that can be overwhelming to navigate alone, particularly when the disease has already claimed a spouse or parent, leaving remaining family members without a primary source of income or stability.
Hogar de Vida offers a comprehensive refuge for women and children in these circumstances, providing temporary shelter, healthcare support, meals, counseling, and occupational therapy, along with assistance navigating Peru’s public health system, a bureaucratic process that can be daunting for families already dealing with the stress of serious illness. The shelter also operates a food pantry and meal program that extends support to vulnerable families throughout the surrounding community, beyond just shelter residents.
Providing comprehensive shelter and care under one roof reflects the Catholic Social Teaching principle of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, treating medical, emotional, and material needs as inseparable dimensions of a single human story. This ministry also embodies Maryknoll’s charism of holistic accompaniment, walking with women and children through crisis rather than addressing only the illness while leaving the rest of their circumstances unattended.
Gifts to this project provide shelter, healthcare support, meals, and counseling for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Peru, offering stability and compassionate care during a time of significant vulnerability.
by Dionel Rodriguez | Jun 1, 2020
HIV/AIDS has affected Kenyan communities for more than four decades, and while significant progress has been made in treatment and prevention, the disease continues to place a heavy burden on families, particularly in lower-income urban and peri-urban areas. Beyond the medical challenges, individuals living with HIV often face stigma, isolation, and disruptions to their livelihoods that compound the difficulty of managing a chronic illness.
The Eastern Deanery AIDS Relief Program, supported by Maryknoll, has served as a comprehensive resource for individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Kenya. The program provides life-saving antiretroviral treatment, HIV testing and counseling, maternal healthcare aimed at preventing mother-to-child transmission, prevention education, and spiritual support for patients and their families.
This ministry has embodied the Catholic Social Teaching principles of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person and the Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, treating each patient as someone made in God’s image regardless of diagnosis or social stigma. It reflects the Maryknoll charism of long-term presence among the suffering, remaining steadfastly alongside communities through decades of an epidemic that many other institutions have long since stopped discussing.
Gifts to this project sustain a program that has provided consistent, compassionate care to some of Kenya’s most vulnerable communities for over thirty years, helping ensure that life-saving treatment and support remain available to those who need it most.
