Opus Dei

We learnt that most of these ladies lived in this home because they had nobody to look after them. Some ladies were abandoned when they were very young while others were slightly older.

Orvalle, a high-school for girls in Madrid, celebrated its 40th anniversary last year by co-operating with a training programme for eighty Ugandan women under the auspices of the NGO, Harambee.

A number of Spanish schools have been taking part in Harambee scholarship projects.

In Abidjan in Ivory Coast, parents and teachers are working together closely to build a school that reinforces the values learned at home.

Maria Estela is Guatemalan. Several years ago she was taught the skills needed to earn an income in Ixoqui, a rural center that seeks to improve the material and spiritual life of the women in the area.

Abel Albino is a pediatrician in Argentina. In 1995 he founded CONIN, an NGO that has set up more than 70 centers to combat infant malnutrition. From the documentary "Working for the Others" on social initiatives inspired by Blessed Alvaro del Portillo in Latin America.

Sofia Miguens teaches in Buen Consejo School, located in an impoverished district of Buenos Aires. Cardinal Bergoglio had a special love for this school and visited it several times.

In a get-together in Nairobi in 1989, Blessed Alvaro suggested that the best service we can render the poor is to give them the skills needed to find a job.

Isabel Covarrubias, a teacher from Santiago, Chile, is spending this semester helping out at Kimlea Technical Training Centre in Kenya.

Near Nairobi, Kenya, Kimlea began in 1989 under the encouragement of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo. To date about 12,000 women have benefited, most of them young girls working on the tea and coffee plantations.