The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) on December 12-13, 2018, approved through its various subcommittees grants totaling $10 million for Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe ($4 million), Church in Latin America ($3.2 million), Hurrican Relief in the Carribean ($800,000), and the Church in African ($1).
Central and Eastern Europe projects receiving funding include:
● Charitable support for single mothers in areas of Armenia experiencing high emigration rates of men. Through Armenian Caritas, mothers and children in need will receive food, hygienic items, school supplies, fuel, medicine, and other necessities.
● The construction of a rehabilitation center in Georgia to provide services to children, people with disabilities, and others living in poverty. The center, which will be managed by the Georgian branches of the Camillians and the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Christiana, will offer rehabilitation, mental health, and speech therapy services to the people of South Georgia and northern Armenia.
● Financial support to help young people from Latvia participate in World Youth Day in Panama City, Panama, in January 2019.
● Translation of Papal encyclicals and other important Catholic social teaching documents into modern Ukrainian, many for the first time. The translated documents will be published in both printed and electronic format and presented through a series of workshops in different areas of Ukraine.
● Support for the development of the most rapidly growing seminary in Eastern Europe in Kyiv, Ukraine, where the number of seminarians has increased from 39 to 79 in the last five years.
Central and Eastern Europe projects receiving funding include:
● Charitable support for single mothers in areas of Armenia experiencing high emigration rates of men. Through Armenian Caritas, mothers and children in need will receive food, hygienic items, school supplies, fuel, medicine, and other necessities.
● The construction of a rehabilitation center in Georgia to provide services to children, people with disabilities, and others living in poverty. The center, which will be managed by the Georgian branches of the Camillians and the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Christiana, will offer rehabilitation, mental health, and speech therapy services to the people of South Georgia and northern Armenia.
● Financial support to help young people from Latvia participate in World Youth Day in Panama City, Panama, in January 2019.
● Translation of Papal encyclicals and other important Catholic social teaching documents into modern Ukrainian, many for the first time. The translated documents will be published in both printed and electronic format and presented through a series of workshops in different areas of Ukraine.
● Support for the development of the most rapidly growing seminary in Eastern Europe in Kyiv, Ukraine, where the number of seminarians has increased from 39 to 79 in the last five years.
In Latin America, there are 173 grants to support the pastoral work of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean, and seven grants for recovery and reconstruction projects in areas devastated by earthquakes in Haiti and Mexico and Hurricanes Matthew, Maria, and Irma.
Projects slated to receive funding through the Solidarity Fund for the Church in Africa include the following:
● Strengthening the availability and accessibility of Natural Family Planning services in Uganda
● Creation of a continent-wide platform of Catholic student action movements, through the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)
● Ongoing leadership and child-protection formation of local clergy in Zambia
● Integration of Catholic social teaching during priestly formation in the African Great Lakes region
● Strengthening the availability and accessibility of Natural Family Planning services in Uganda
● Creation of a continent-wide platform of Catholic student action movements, through the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)
● Ongoing leadership and child-protection formation of local clergy in Zambia
● Integration of Catholic social teaching during priestly formation in the African Great Lakes region
