Opus Dei

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.

A recent roundtable at IESE Business School for Alvaro del Portillo's centenary recalled how he urged the “setting up of business schools all over the world that would teach the Church’s social doctrine and where charity would be a reality."

Wavecrest College is the first institution in Nigeria that offers training for women working in hospitality services. It began under the impetus of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo.

Spurred by a Buddhist woman’s zeal, José Luis Olaizola, a supernumerary of Opus Dei, and his wife Marisa have raised over a million euros to help fight the exploitation of young girls in Thailand.