Opus Dei

Project Harambee announced its grant awards on June 23, including a program of social reintegration for former child-soldiers in Sierra Leone, a new library for a Ugandan school, and a farm for families taking in Rwandan orphans. Its press release follows.

From a Verona theater to a Hong Kong school, people all around the world have been finding creative ways of raising money for the African educational projects fund established at the canonization of St. Josemaría.

Kinal began in 1961 with a group of bricklayers and carpenters in a poor area of Guatemala City. Today 700 young men are receiving technical training in the school to help them find work that will improve the economic situation of their family.

The Jacarandá Center, which includes a school and four other social programs, is a project in Guayaquil, the main port of Ecuador. This social initiative was inspired by the life and teachings of St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei.

On the occasion of the centennial of the birth of St. Josemaría, the Centennial Medical Unit has been launched in Monterrey, Mexico, to offer free medical care to people with limited means.

Braval, a social project inspired by the teachings of St. Josemaría, seeks to help young immigrants in Barcelona, Spain, integrate into society and overcome employment difficulties and marginalization. An account of Braval's inaugural year follows.

Scarcity, poverty and misery were what a group of students from Montevideo found when they started teaching catechism in the Casavalle quarter in 1995. From this experience they developed the idea of a social project to alleviate the difficulties. Two years later land and premises were obtained, and thus was born Los Pinos Educational Center.

"Summer fun" for Rosedale Achievement Center’s high school girls means getting up early, working hard from 9:00 – 12:00, taking classes from 1:00 – 4:00 and going home tired, happy and with money in their pockets.

Each year a group of Irish students organizes a work camp to help needy people in St. Petersburg by refurbishing their dwellings. The work camp has also included students from Finland, the U.S., Lithuania, and Latvia. Joe Flanagan relates his memories of the camp.

Midtown Achievement Program, a corporate work of Opus Dei, has been bringing hope to Chicago youth since 1963. This report from Compassion and Culture Magazine tells how.