For some Americans, post-Labor Day means “back to school,” which can be exciting or stressful or both. Kids or no, the holiday marks the time to get back to business. Turn over a new leaf. Make a fresh start. Take the next level.

To families in developing countries, however, back to school might as well mean a trip to the moon—it’s just as far fetched. Even tuition-free government schools charge enrollment fees, and most require students to

“Back to school” doesn’t’ apply to kids in developing countries who can’t even afford the shoes to walk there. Thanks to supporters of Cross International Catholic Outreach, though, impoverished kids like these in Kenya are getting a quality Catholic education.

wear uniforms and shoes—costs that are out of reach to poor parents who don’t have two pennies to rub together.

It’s a sad “Catch 22.” People who lack education, especially literacy, can’t get a job. So they can’t afford to send their kids to school. Those kids grow up illiterate and unemployed, and the cycle continues. Education breaks that cycle. (Click here to read more about how knowledge combats poverty.)

A family trapped in poverty for generations can lift itself out in one. But they usually need a boost.

What that means in dollars depends on whether a child goes to primary school or college, whether tuition includes room and board, and what country the student lives in. Costs can range anywhere from $16.50 to help an Ethiopian child go to primary school, to $5,500 to put a Haitian student through a year of medical school.

In today’s economy, any amount is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s small when measured against the good it can do.

What a great way to turn over that new leaf—take the next level: Sponsor education for impoverished kids who would otherwise look forward to more of the same. Help break their cycle of poverty for generations to come.

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.

Anyone watching the stock market in the past few days knows what a volatile place the financial world is these days. The same is true in politics and world events. In less than a year, a crisis in Turkey has sent shock waves through the entire European Union, and analysts expect a bigger “storm” to come.

Because we are designed by God (unlike the fallible things we create), our closeness to God offers us a unique opportunity to find shelter in this broken world

It is pretty clear that humanity’s faith in financial, political, and international leaders is being challenged — and rightly so. Frankly, these people, nations, and practices have always been fallible because they have been human at their core.  They are as susceptible to the influences of sin as we are ourselves.

In the midst of this turmoil, a friend of mine has just announced a miraculous event — the birth of his daughter.  He shared his joy with me, and sent along pictures of the beautiful girl he and his wife named “Maia.”  He pointed out that the name, unbeknownst to him when it was chosen, means “close to God” in Hebrew.

Considering the condition of the world, I smiled at the irony of that.  Given how traumatic, dangerous, and unpredictable the world is these days, this newborn child reminds us that we should all remain very “close to God.” Because we are designed by God (unlike the fallible things we create), our closeness to God offers us a unique opportunity to find shelter in this broken world and to be enveloped in his perfection, purpose, and peace.

As a Catholic charity, we believe it is important to carry this belief into the mission field too.  We approach the poor with the knowledge that they can find refuge from their plight by drawing closer to God. We share this important truth with them, and we work with priests and nuns overseas to play a role in that ministry too.

This world will never be perfect while sinful humans taint its economy, politics and culture, but we can thank God that all is not lost as long as our Lord stands ready to empower and guide us. That is as true for baby Maia as it is for you, me, and those we minister to overseas. As our Lord expressed it in Matthew 7:24:

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”

May we all remember this powerful promise as the man-made storms rage overhead!

Last year, the United Nations projected a rise in world hunger to 1.02 billion people – more than one-seventh of the global population! Statistics on hunger are always rough estimates, and the results can vary greatly from one study to another. But one thing seems clear: the U.N. number is no exaggeration. In fact, it may be too conservative!

The United Nations projected a rise in world hunger to 1.02 billion people!

For starters, the U.N. study only tells us how many people are undernourished; not how many are malnourished. In other words, a person who is eating regularly and getting more than enough calories, but who is too poor to afford the variety of foods necessary to meet basic vitamin and nutrient requirements, would not have been counted as “hungry.”

The definition of hunger was restricted even further by a very low standard for minimum energy needs. The number of calories was based on a “sedentary lifestyle” or what is needed to live a healthy but inactive life. But many poor people work very hard to support themselves and need more food to maintain a healthy energy level.

Whatever the true number of the hungry, it’s encouraging to know that there are many dedicated Catholics doing what they can to meet the nutritional needs of the poor around the world. Cross International Catholic Outreach is blessed to be working alongside a number of fantastic ministries, such as the Franciscan Sisters’ Dagama Home in Zambia and the Las Mercedies Nutrition Center in Honduras, that are bringing both physical and spiritual nourishment to the hungry on a daily basis. Click here to see our complete list of Cross Catholic feeding programs, and get involved today!

When Mother Joan Clare first held little Prince and Princess, 17-month-old Filipino twins, they were only 6 ½ pounds. She tried to give them food, but they didn’t know what food was. She tried to give them milk, but they vomited what little they consumed. She says, “They were both suffering from severe malnutrition…they could not speak, walk, or even sit up. They were yellow from lack of blood, and too listless for comfort.”

Mother Joan and Sr. Aura cuddle 20-month-old Prince and Princess, twins rescued from the brink of starvation just three months earlier.

She rushed the twins to the hospital, but she knew the odds of their survival were slim. The hospital found their blood so anemic it was like water, and Prince’s condition was the worst. His tiny veins were collapsing, making an IV or blood transfusion nearly impossible. Mother Joan says, “The skin color of Prince was a sickly, pasty yellow, and the look of death was on his face. I emergency-baptized the baby.”

Mother Joan knew it was time to call in divine forces. She pulled out her cell phone and sent a text to her priest, “FATHER WE NEED A MIRACLE!” His response: “I WILL PRAY AND HOPE YOU GET YOUR MIRACLE!”

The next morning, Prince and Princess were still alive, and three IVs were finally feeding nutrients into Prince’s tiny body. A week later the twins were discharged into the care of Mother Joan at Cross Catholic-sponsored Queen of Peace Children’s Home. She says, “God never fails—I got my miracle!”

Did you know that an estimated 1.1 billion people around the world rely on unsanitary water sources for drinking?

Clean water is a basic necessity that no one should have to do without.

That number got a lot of attention this week as the U.N. and other international groups observed World Water Day, a time for raising awareness about the plight of those who lack access to clean water. In some parts of the world, water is so scarce that parents must send their children long distances to fetch bucketfuls of water from rivers infested with bacteria, parasites, and even human waste. Clean water is a basic necessity that no one should have to do without. It is needed for drinking, bathing, farming, and for maintaining even a tolerable standard of living.

While some water-related problems are man-made, others are the result of weather patterns and natural disasters beyond human control. Cross Catholic Projects Officer Jim Kline recently visited Ethiopia, where a series of failed rains has been causing massive crop failures and food shortages. This is particularly bad news for animal herders and subsistence-level farmers who were already struggling to provide for their families before the latest drought struck. The loss of so many crops has resulted in spikes in food prices, hurting the poor even more.

Cross Catholic is currently sponsoring a number of great projects in Ethiopia, such as a center for street children in the city of Adigrat, and a health clinic for poor families in the rural, mountainside community of Minne. Please remember to keep our Ethiopian mission partners in your prayers as they cope with the effects of an extended drought. You can learn more about what Cross Catholic is doing to bring clean water to poor communities around the world by clicking here.

For many people, St. Patrick’s Day is a time to wear green, eat corned beef and cabbage, and have a night out with friends. But behind all the merrymaking is a story of a 4th century missionary whose life exemplified the kind of self-sacrificial love we strive to emulate here at Cross.

A stained-glass depiction of St. Patrick, who converted Ireland to Christianity in the 5th century.

Before St. Patrick came to Ireland voluntarily as a preacher of the gospel, he came in shackles as a slave. This injustice could have embittered Patrick toward the Irish people, who had kidnapped him from his homeland in Britain. But after escaping on a boat and vowing never again to set foot in Ireland, God gave Patrick a supernatural compassion for his pagan captors who desperately needed Christ.

It’s easy to have compassion on a friend, or on those who suffer by no fault of their own. But Cross Catholic aims to do more than this, because when we come across people who do not share our values or faith and who have made choices that have worsened their situation, Christ’s radical love compels us to show mercy. We are called not only to serve those who are kind, hard-working, intelligent, and attractive, but also those who are rough around the edges, difficult to look at, and unlikely to thank us for our help.

The question isn’t whether the needy deserve our compassion, but whether Christ deserves our obedience. When Cross Catholic provides houses for poor families living in the Filipino slums, the houses go to those who need them most, without discrimination. We give to everyone as if we were giving to Christ himself. In Ethiopia, our rehabilitation program for handicapped children has been a great opportunity for local Catholics to build bridges to people of other faiths and has resulted in a positive relationship with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. When Catholics reach out in love to their neighbors, it makes people eager to learn why we do what we do.

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!