Seven-year-old Grace Nachivula is blessed. She can walk, run, go to school, play with her friends, and get through the day without severe pain.

What’s so amazing about that, you ask?

After surgery for her bowed legs, Grace is now able to walk with little effort

Until recently, she could not do any of those things – at least not without extreme difficulty. Like many other children in Zambia and throughout the developing world, Grace suffered from bowed legs, a condition often caused by hunger and virtually permanent – not because it can’t be treated, but because the poor can’t afford surgery.

Bowed legs are normal at birth, and naturally correct themselves during early childhood. But dietary deficiencies of vitamin D and other nutrients can hijack the process, leaving the child deformed.

At home, Grace survives on a diet almost exclusively of maize meal. The average Zambian family consumes two $110 lb. bags of the starch-heavy food per month, but Grace’s family is so poor that they had only two bags for all of last year. Her father earns pennies doing odd jobs as a day laborer, while her mother stays at home raising Grace and her four siblings.

Most likely, Grace would have lived her whole life with bowed legs, if not for the intervention of Sr. Margaret and the compassionate sisters at Kabulonga Cheshire Home. Through this wonderful program, Grace has been provided with three surgeries and ongoing follow-up care, so she can go to school with her friends and live a normal, happy life. The kindness of the Cheshire Home staff has made such an impression on little Grace that she now says her dream is to become a nun and serve others.

Cross International Catholic Outreach provides critical operational support for Kabulonga Cheshire Home, so that physically disabled children like Grace can receive the medical care, nutritious food, and loving pastoral support they desperately need. Click here to learn more about this great ministry!

This weekend, many Americans will express thanks for their freedom as they celebrate Independence Day. The idea of freedom means different things to different people: freedom from want, freedom from oppression, freedom to succeed, freedom to say and do as we please.

Seeing children thrive in places like Mozambique is proof that Christians can make a difference in lives around the world.

As Christians, we understand freedom in a very exciting way. Ephesians 3:12 says, “In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” That means God allows us to come to him directly through prayer—we are free to talk to him, share our lives with him, and worship him with not fear, but joy.

Sadly, many people in our world aren’t free in this sense. About 78 million people don’t have access to the Bible in their native language, and about 1.2 billion people have never heard the gospel. What are we as Christians to do about this? Can we do anything at all?

Here’s a story that can help us take heart: In the Tete Cathedral Parish in northern Mozambique, orphans and vulnerable children often have no choice but to beg in the streets, hoping for a meal. Elisa, who lives in Tete, lost her father as a child, and her mother often couldn’t provide enough food for her and her five siblings.

“Our suffering started,” Elisa said. “Some days we had nothing to eat. Sometimes our mother went to her family to ask for food. Other days we went to our friends’ house. To silence the stomach we drank water and slept without food.”

Thankfully, someone came to her aid: the Tete Center, a day center supported by Cross International Catholic Outreach that provides orphans and vulnerable children with meals, clothing, school supplies, and help with medical expenses. A sister from the Tete Center saw the need in Elisa’s family and invited her and her younger sisters to attend the center. Life has improved greatly since enrolling at the center, she says. In a letter she wrote to Cross Catholic, she described the hope she found at the Tete Center: “Our life changed, and we are not suffering so much anymore. We study and hope for a better future.”

God calls us to use our freedom to give in his name, to offer of ourselves when no one else will. Thanks to gifts from caring American Catholics, children like Prince and Princess experience God’s love through us. Galatians 5:13 says, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” God calls us to use our freedom for good, for serving each other in his name. He reminds us that we can’t understand freedom only in the sense of what we aren’t forced to do; he asks us to think of freedom in terms of what we are at liberty to do for others.

Click here to read about how you can serve others in God’s name through orphanages and other programs supported by Cross International Catholic Outreach.

First the good news: ten African countries are only half as poor as they were two decades ago.

Young children in sub-Saharan Africa face an uphill battle for survival against poverty, hunger, and infectious diseases.

Now the bad news: child mortality rates have actually gone up, rather than down, in six sub-Saharan nations. Sub-Saharan Africa holds the unfortunate distinction of being the only region in the world that has seen an increase in the mortality rate of children under age 5. That’s according to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals Report Card released on Tuesday.

What makes this report particularly relevant to us at Cross Catholic is that most of our work in Africa is in the sub-Saharan region. Two of the six countries listed in the child-mortality report are Zambia and Kenya, where we are providing food, health care, housing, and education to the poorest of the poor.

Waterborne illnesses and other infectious diseases are leading causes of child deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, while HIV remains a major threat, directly and indirectly, to the health of children. In many cases, lives can be saved by simple improvements in home sanitation and by educating HIV-infected mothers to bottle-feed their infants. Good nutrition plays a vital role in fending off disease, and children must be kept in school because they are the producers of tomorrow’s wealth, which will in turn provide the food, medical care, and healthier way of life their society needs. Cross Catholic is promoting all these developments through partnerships with local Catholic clergy and laypeople who understand Africa’s struggles and know how to make a difference, one family at a time, one village at a time.

Click here for a complete list of all our current Africa projects that you can get involved in today!

With the help of Cross Catholic, Christine has turned her life around after losing everything she had.

Last year, we met a Zambian woman named Christine who had gone from riches to rags because of AIDS. Once the owner of three houses, she sold all her properties in desperation and used the money to pay a medicine man to cure her. In the end, she was left with no money, no friends or family to support her, and a worsening illness.

At the time of our meeting, Cross Catholic was providing nutritional support and counseling for Christine through a local home-based care program. The support, in combination with antiretroviral (ARV) medication, had effected a dramatic change in her life and restored her declining health to where she was able to function.

Just last month, we met Christine again – this time at her brand new home that we provided through the help of the same local ministry. We were delighted to find that Christine was raising chickens on her new property and that she was utilizing all the available space outside to grow her own food. The chickens will provide a steady income that will enable her to support herself and her one child who is now living with her.

Christine’s new house.

Christine’s work ethic is setting a good example for her neighbors, all of whom have also received their homes from Cross Catholic. The temptation for these families to give in to despair is great, but Christine wasted no time in making the most of her situation. She is no longer a victim, but an overcomer. Instead of weeping over her past, she is looking toward the future with new hope, as she plans for her family’s welfare.

Christine represents exactly the kind of success the home-based care program aims to achieve in the lives of poor Zambian families traumatized by the AIDS pandemic.

Some kids will invent almost any excuse to stay home from school. But 10-year-old Bruce Mwansa has a legitimate reason for his imperfect attendance. In fact, no one would blame him if he didn’t show up at all.

Bruce Mwansa, 10, would not be able to go to school without the help of Cross Catholic.

At home, Bruce’s only parental figure is his blind, elderly grandfather. His grandmother is dead, his father ran off long ago, and his mother has been incapable of taking care of her ten children since she succumbed to mental illness. The house is empty and dilapidated, and the garden has become a dried out field of dirt. They are so poor that they eat only one meal a day, which they get by begging in the streets.

Bruce’s blind grandfather (center) expressed his thanks to Cross Catholic for helping the motivated young boy get the education he desires.

That’s why Bruce misses so much school – his family needs him to beg. But despite the hardships of his home life, he still manages to attend class twice a week, so he can be with his friends and get an education that many others do not have.

In the poorest parts of Zambia, it’s not uncommon for children to opt out of school altogether. But those who do go are there because they want to be, and they are willing to walk several miles each morning to get there, because they know how important an education is to their future.

Unlike Zambia’s public schools, enrollment at Bruce’s school is one hundred percent free and includes all supplies. Cross Catholic provides the small salaries of the teachers, so they don’t have to pass on the cost to the students, who have nothing to give. The school is the children’s only hope of escaping squalor and hunger and achieving better lives.

Nine-year-old Joseph may be blind, but don’t think of him as disabled. Think of him as a child with a special skill that most of us don’t have.

Joseph, who is blind, has learned to identify his classmates by touch and smell.

During a visit this month to the Chizombezi Deafblind Center in Malawi, Cross Catholic staff members watched Joseph place his hands on his classmates’ faces and identify each one of them by touch and smell. It was amazing to see how he compensated for his blindness through the use of his other senses.

Joseph’s occasional mistakes were met with laughter by the other students, but they were laughing with, not at, him. The children have learned to have a sense of humor about the challenges they face because they no longer face them alone. That close companionship is what makes the Deafblind Center a truly special place. Disabled children in Malawi are often isolated, ignored, denied opportunities to thrive, and made to feel ashamed of their condition. But the Deafblind Center is a safe haven where they can make friends, be free to express themselves, and do the kinds of things that other kids do – even singing and dancing!

We learned from the sisters who run the Center that when Joseph first arrived, he was barely functional because he wasn’t getting the care and attention he needed at home, being just one of eleven siblings in a very poor family. But today, Joseph has a smile on his face and joy in his heart.

Click here to learn more about this great Cross Catholic project and how it is impacting the lives of children like Joseph.

If you’ve ever wondered where the most religious place on earth is, a new study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has an answer: sub-Saharan Africa. More specifically, the countries south of the Sahara Desert and north of South Africa.

The sisters at Kabulonga Cheshire Home are impacting African society with Catholic moral values and the love of Christ.

Researchers found that a large majority of Africans consider religion “very important.” But the more interesting find has to do with which religions they are practicing. Just a century ago, traditional indigenous beliefs dominated the region. But Christian missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, have turned the tables to the point that one in five of the world’s Christians now lives in sub-Saharan Africa!

This reversal is great testimony to the effectiveness of evangelism, but it’s not the whole story. In many cases, indigenous African beliefs, such as sacrifices to ancestors, have been incorporated into their newfound Christianity. A man might go to Mass on Sunday and then on Monday earn a living as a witch doctor. And as the infamous Rwanda genocide has shown, the tribal violence that plagued pre-evangelized Africa continues to be a problem.

How should we as Catholics respond to this? Deep, sincere faith cannot be forced, but God has given us the tools to be an effective witness, and one of those tools is the simple act of loving our neighbors. That’s what is happening at Kabulonga Cheshire Home in Zambia, where the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi are providing care for children with birth defects and physical disabilities. The love and compassion the children experience is in stark contrast to their previous lives of loneliness and isolation in a country where disabilities carry a heavy stigma. Now the children do not have to be ashamed, and they have learned that there is a God in heaven who accepts them the way they are.

Cross International is an enthusiastic partner and supporter of Kabulonga Cheshire Home. Click here to find out how you can help the sisters impact Africa with Christ’s love.

It is sometimes difficult to hear the heartbreaking stories of the people we help, especially when they involve children. What keeps us encouraged are the stories we receive from our partners detailing how dire situations have been turned around and lives are renewed.

(Left to right) Siblings Nancy, 5, Humphrey, 8, and John, 4, had been living on their own for three years until a Catholic school supported by Cross International Catholic Outreach rescued them and placed them in a loving home.

One of those recent stories came from a Catholic school we support near the second largest urban slum in Africa.

Meet siblings Humphrey, 8, Nancy, 5, and John, 4. Four years ago, their mother sold them to a woman living in the infamous Kibera Slums of Nairobi, Kenya. When the staff of a nearby Catholic school we support found out what had happened, they helped the children enroll in school and put them in their grandmother’s custody.

But their troubles were far from over. After a few months, their destitute grandmother abandoned the siblings to go earn a living on a distant farm, and the children spent the next three years caring for themselves.

They lived in a one-room, iron sheet house in the middle of the bush. The windows and door didn’t close, the floor was made of mud, and there were gaping holes in the roof. Humphrey, who wasn’t even in third grade yet, juggled work and school, desperately trying to support his younger siblings, but they often went without food. Weekends were especially difficult because they did not receive a school lunch to fill their empty bellies.

When the staff at the school went for a home visit, they quickly realized that the siblings had been abandoned. The staff arranged for the children to stay with a catechist and his family at the local Catholic mission compound. The siblings are now clothed, well-fed, and able to attend school every day. Their happiness is evident by the gaping smiles always on their faces. They are now receiving the care and love every child deserves.

Our Catholic benefactors enable us to support several life-saving programs like this one in Kenya and other Sub-Saharan countries. To learn more about our work with orphans and vulnerable children in Africa, click here.

Now that Lent has begun, Catholics are spending even more time in prayer and fasting in the weeks leading up to Easter, when we will celebrate our Savior’s resurrection.

There’s a tradition that during Lent, we are supposed to give up a particular luxury we enjoy, such as unhealthy foods or even television. But this year, some Christian religious leaders are calling for a slightly different approach: don’t just give something up – give it away. Reach out with your time and talents to others in need.

“Remember all the gifts God has given you,” suggests a recent Catholic Digest article. “Imitate God’s generosity by increasing your offering to your parish and to outside charities, and keep it up throughout the coming year.”

Lent is a great opportunity for believers to bless others while denying themselves. We can turn our thoughts not only to the needs of the neighbor across the street, but also to the poor and downtrodden around the world. Of course, not everyone can personally travel to a faraway land to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but those of us who stay home have an important role to play in supporting those who go.

At Cross International Catholic Outreach, our mission partners simply could not do what they do without the generous giving of our Catholic donors. Whether you choose to feed orphans at the Impaputo Children’s Center in Mozambique or build houses for poor families in the Philippines, your gifts make a real difference. Check out our online project catalog to see how you can be a blessing in someone’s life today!

In honor of World AIDS Day, Pope Benedict XVI recently gave a talk at St. Peter’s Square:

“The Church never ceases to strive to combat AIDS through her institutions and personnel dedicated to that task. I call upon everyone to make their contribution, with prayer and tangible assistance, so that people affected by the HIV virus may experience the presence of the Lord Who offers comfort and hope. Finally, I trust that, by increasing and coordinating efforts, we may manage to halt and eradicate this disease.”

Cross Catholic provides AIDS education for poor school children in Uganda.

A lot has changed since the first World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, 1988, thanks to the development of antiretroviral drugs and increased awareness of the dangers of promiscuity. But much work remains to be done, especially in Africa, and we at Cross Catholic are humbled to be a part of the ongoing efforts to fight the disease.

Last year, a full 72 percent of new HIV cases worldwide were in Sub-Saharan Africa. It has also been reported that half of all maternal deaths in Botswana and South Africa are due to HIV. Numbers like these tell us that the AIDS threat to the African people is still very real and very serious.

One way we are reaching out to AIDS victims is through the Mbikko Integrated Development project in Uganda, where Catholics are using education to transform a rural community plagued by prostitution, poverty, and disease. Counselors go into classrooms and have one-on-one talks with children to teach them at a young age how to protect themselves from sexual exploitation and to abstain from sex until marriage. They integrate Bible lessons into their teachings to provide a solid moral foundation for promoting a monogamous lifestyle.

In Zambia, we are working with the Franciscans’ Itimpi Community Health Care project to visit AIDS patients and other chronically ill people in their homes and provide medication, food, baby formula (HIV-infected mothers can’t breastfeed), and other care.

As we commemorate this year’s World AIDS Day, you can demonstrate Christ’s love in a powerful way by giving to one of our projects in Africa. Get involved today!