Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

When a child enters the sponsorship program, the whole family benefits from the support. Families can grow together when they can all access nutritious food, health supplies, and send the sponsored child and their siblings to school. Knowing there is a regular source of support gives the family stability, confidence, and the ability to plan for future needs.

This week, our top 5 “Grow Families” photos celebrate God’s great gifts to us: our parents, siblings, grandparents and even our ‘families’ that aren’t related by blood. Through sponsorship, everyone can thrive.

#4: Building strong families 

Ethel is the president of her Family Circle at our Samar site in the Philippines. She lives with her husband and five precious children, three who are sponsored through Chalice! Thanks to the support of sponsorship, her children Liberato, Hazel, Erica, and Ella Jean are all able to attend school, while baby Aiden will have the support needed to grow up happy and healthy. Wanting to give back to the community, Ethel and her group-mates planted a garden at her children’s local school!
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Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

Easter is a time to celebrate new life! As the winter melts into spring and the first flowers unfurl from the earth, we are filled with hope. New life abounds in our sites in many forms, and our dedicated site staff work to nurture them all into an abundant harvest. Our top 5 new life photos celebrate the hope of Easter and a new and brighter tomorrow!

#4: Starting life out right 

Pregnant and breast-feeding moms need to be extra mindful that they are getting a complete diet rich in vitamins and minerals. In rural Kenya, mothers-to-be and new moms were facing malnutrition and it was affecting their babies. Thanks to generous supporters of Chalice’s nutrition fund, the Sisters who run our Mercy Care site provided 388 mothers with a complete package of nutritional staples they need to stay strong. All the pregnant mothers involved delivered healthy babies, and the babies gained weight properly. The breast-feeding babies were stronger, more active and healthy!  Continue reading →

Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

Many of the families that we serve live in distant, rural towns far away from the hustle and bustle of central cities. Unfortunately, this means that they lack quick access to essential services such as medical care. When faced with further difficulties such as lockdowns caused by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, families face prolonged periods of isolation from food supplies, doctors, and other nessecities.

Thankfully, with the support of our sponsors and donors, our sites are able to quickly adapt in times of turmoil. Mobile medical clinics and on-the-go nutrition programs allow families to receive timely care when it matters most, while mobile businesses give families a chance to become self sufficient! This week, we’re sharing our top 5 “going mobile” photos to showcase some of these incredible initiatives taking place at our sites.

#5: Medicine on the move

At our Mercy care site in Kenya, a mobile medical clinic funded by kind Chalice donors is making a world of difference for children located in remote areas. Sr. Franclit, who works at the site, says when the mobile medical clinic came to the area, the situation was dire. With no other way to access health care, skin infections and other illnesses were going untreated. “Now, the children are very healthy, they are getting enough food, and they are getting enough medicine,” says Sr. Franclit.

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Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

St. Joseph, the foster-father of Jesus and husband of the Virgin Mary, is a model of loving fidelity for Christians throughout the world. Catholics believe that his prayers for us in heaven are so powerful, he was made the universal patron saint 150 years ago. To mark this special anniversary, Pope Francis declared 2021 the year of Saint Joseph. Today, March 19, is St. Joseph’s feast day. In Latin America, they celebrate Father’s Day today, too!

Besides being our universal patron, St Joseph is the patron saint of many paths of life. He is the patron of all fathers for his role in Jesus’ life, and for workers, artisans and carpenters because of his dedication to his skilled craft. He watches over travelers in remembrance of his journey to Bethlehem with Mary, and he protects migrants and refugees just as he did with his family when they had to flee to Egypt. Today, we share our top 5 “St. Joseph’s Day themed” photos to celebrate this beloved saint and ask for his prayers for the children and families at our sites. St. Joseph, pray for us! 

#5: Patron saint of migrants 

St. Joseph is the patron saint of migrants, and protects them in honour of their struggles just as he too struggled when fleeing from Egypt with Mary and Jesus. These children from our Santiago site in Chile give likeness to Mary and Joseph during a Christmas celebration! At our sites in Chile, we work with high populations of migrant workers from neighbouring countries who have been attracted to Chile’s growing economy.  Unfortunately, these families frequently do not succeed in finding work and struggle with poverty. Sponsorship allows children and families to find their footing in new communities.

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Welcome to Photo Friday! Each Friday, we share photo collections of our favourite shots from our sponsor sites around the world.

From March 8-14, we’ve been celebrating Catholic Sisters Week. We are privileged to partner with many congregations around the world who live out their charism to serve the ‘least’ of Christ’s children. We marvel each day at their dedication to prayer, which fills them with the grace and strength they need to live out their vocations through acts of service and sacrifice. 

It would be impossible for us to highlight and thank each Sister fully for their work and inspiration, but this week we’ve selected our top 5 Catholic Sister photos from our sites. Each one shows how they live the Gospel through their daily activities. Inspired by the well-known passages of Matthew 25, we celebrate how Catholic Sisters saw need, stepped in and…

#5: “…and you welcomed me.” 

Sr. Mary Grace is the site director for our Neema site in Tanzania and a member of the Sisters of the Visitation, a Vincentian order. She oversees the site’s sponsorship program, which includes the Neema Visitation Orphanage, which welcomes girls of all ages who stay until they can support themselves on their own. Many come back for visits when they move away, because the orphanage has always been home, and the Sisters their loving family. The orphanage includes a school and a chapel, where the girls are educated and enlightened. The Sisters support their daily meals with a garden and small animal farm.

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