World Villages For Children
World Villages for Children is a nonprofit providing financial support to the charity programs of the Sisters of Mary.
Thanks to our supporters, the Sisters of Mary provide food, care and education for more than 20,000 children in seven countries. These children are among the most marginalized and vulnerable. Our Villages – also referred to as Boystowns and Girlstowns – provide our children with a fully accredited in-house education program and vocational training. In Guatemala, Korea, and Brazil, the Sisters of Mary also run medical clinics and hospitals where they care for the poor.
To date, World Villages for Children has helped 150,000 children and their families break free from a life of poverty.
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in Need Today
Help us reach our goal of 22,000,000 meals per year
Meet The Sisters
For over 60 years, The Sisters of Mary, founded by Venerable Aloysius Schwartz, have worked tirelessly, operating our charitable programs in the Philippines, South Korea, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras, and Tanzania. In each country, the Sisters work to not only give children a safe roof over their heads, food, and education, but also provide the spiritual and emotional guidance needed in order to overcome the tragedy of poverty and become successful adults. There are now more than 400 Sisters carrying on Father Al’s mission in Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, and Tanzania.
New On Our Blog
CHRISTMAS MUSINGS OF HOPE
BREAKING CHAINS Twenty-three teenagers at Girlstown in Chalco, Mexico remained. They stood quietly off to the side two weeks ago as more than three thousand classmates boarded the buses and cars that would take them back to their families on mountainside villages, in small towns, and within the tangle of the inner-city Mexican streets. For […]
The Rhythm of the Saints
READING THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS In the many weeks spent researching the life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz, founder of World Villages for Children and the Sisters of Mary, I had, of course, discovered countless compelling aspects of his personality and priesthood: he had a droll wit, was unbudging on his commitment to prayer, consecrated […]
Are we Bystanders or Heroes?
WHEN A HELLISH SCENE UNFOLDED BEFORE THEM, A TRAIN FULL OF PASSENGERS STOOD STILL Every so often a news story from the culture slips past the inundation of daily news feeds and manages to paralyze us. This particular story, which broke earlier this week in Philadelphia, read like a scene from hell. I am not […]
Two Paths of an ALS Diagnosis
RESIGNED TO SERVE THE POOR Fr. Al with child wheelchair On a startling autumn morning in 1989, a doctor asked Fr. Aloysius Schwartz (founder of World Villages for Children) to sit down, looked him in the eye, and shared the hard news: the 59-year-old American missionary, in the prime of his astonishing ministry for the […]
Fr. Aloysius Schwartz and St. Therese of Lisieux
“THANK YOU LORD, I NEEDED THAT” On this Feast Day of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, it is good to recall how the Church Doctor and Carmelite nun broke like teams of wild stallions into Venerable Aloysius Schwartz’s (founder of World Villages for Children) soul. In 1945, Al was a precocious 15-year-old, two years […]
The Spanking that Moved Aloysius Schwartz to St. Therese of Lisieux
“THANK YOU LORD, I NEEDED THAT” On this Feast Day of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, it is good to recall how the Church Doctor and Carmelite nun broke like teams of wild stallions into Venerable Aloysius Schwartz’s (founder of World Villages for Children) soul. In 1945, Al was a precocious 15-year-old, two years […]
Every Child’s Birthday
ONE OF A KIND CELEBRATION 20,000 children celebrate their birthdays in world’s largest one day celebration of its kind. The event, named ‘Every Child’s Birthday’ will take place Sunday, August 15th across six countries globally, and will mark the birthdays of some of the world’s poorest children; many of whom don’t have the luxury of […]
Different Shades of Freedom
FELT LIKE FREEDOM The plastic boat felt thin beneath the small boy’s feet. But the waters stirred up from the paddles that splashed onto the 12-year-old’s face and arms felt like freedom. As the boat pushed Edwin and his father over the Rio Grande River and closer to American soil, the long 22-day journey from […]
The Need for Catholic Imagination
BARREN IMAGINATION Richard Dawkins, a well-known anti-religious and atheist thinker, has recently set the Catholic twitter-verse ablaze with an un-original, but ripe for reaction observation: For contemporary culture and people like Dawkins, there does not exist space other than the metaphorical and the literal. Everything is either a pretend-example or quantifiable-tangible. The idea of a […]
Understanding the Option of the Cross
“Whoever removes the Cross and its interpretation by the New Testament from the center, in order to replace it, for example, with the social commitment of Jesus to the oppressed as the new center, no longer stands in continuity with the apostolic faith.” –Hans Urs von Balthasar UNDERSTANDING THE OPTION OF THE CROSS A TRIP […]
The Willing Victim: The Priest Nailed to the Cross
THE WILLING VICTIM: THE PRIEST NAILED TO THE CROSS PRIESTHOOD IN CHRIST In the concluding episode of today’s Lenten Journey, Fr. Dan Leary shares thoughts on the victimhood of Father Al’s priesthood. The centerpiece of one’s priesthood, Fr. Dan shares, is an identification with the crucified Christ. He believes Venerable Aloysius Schwartz began to offer […]
The Saints Who Shaped Him Into One
THE SAINTS WHO SHAPED HIM INTO ONE In Episode 6 of the “Lenten Journey with Jesus and Fr. Al” Fr. Dan Leary shares intimate thoughts on ten saints who helped to engineer Fr. Al’s priesthood. Personally, one of the treasures of having researched the life of Fr. Al for my biography, Priest and Beggar: The […]
The Prayerful Mystic; or the Non-Stop Worker
THE PRAYERFUL MYSTIC; OR THE NON-STOP WORKER BOTH/AND Few could pin Fr. Al down. At the tortuous moments just prior to his death from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, he belted out whispered commands to those at his bedside: Please remind the Sisters that they must pray three hours every day. In the same breath he was […]
“The Boldest Man I Ever Knew”
“THE BOLDEST MAN I EVER KNEW” Finally, Monsignor James Golasinski was stumped. Throughout the many conversations he and I shared in 2020 while I researched the life of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz for my biography Priest and Beggar: The Heroic Story of Venerable Aloysius Schwartz, he was consistently rapid-fire with memories and storytelling. He had spent […]
Father Knew Best
FATHER KNEW BEST Of the countless descriptors that have come Fr. Al’s way over the years, perhaps none has suited him better than Father. On this very day, there remain tens of thousands of students, graduates, and members from the Sisters of Mary that still refer to Fr. Al as Spiritual Father. It can be […]
Because of Mary – Fr. Al Reached For Beco’s
BECAUSE OF MARY – FR. AL REACHED FOR BECO’S In today’s One 2 One Lenten Journey podcast, Fr. Dan and Kevin discuss the invisible finger of the Blessed Mother’s that throughout Fr. Al’s life seemed to point him in the directionof endless lines of Mariette Beco’s. It could be considered that whenever and wherever Fr. […]
The Pastor’s Poor House and Christ Into the Wilderness
THE SHACKS OF OUR LIVES Because our Lenten self-denials often involve a self-amputation of our will, habits and surface pleasures, forty days can seem like four years. Four years. Shortly after his arrival in Korea in 1957, Fr. Al actually made his Lent last four-plus years by choosing to move into an abandoned shack at […]
Relief for Nonprofits in the CARES Act
n such a tumultuous year, it can be hard to think about needs beyond your front door or beyond your community. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, this crisis is hitting the poor the hardest. Global extreme poverty is expected to rise in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years. This extreme poverty is […]
World Children’s Day
Today is World Children’s Day, first established in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day. It is celebrated on November 20 each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. This year, World Children’s Day holds special significance for us as we consider the dramatic impact the pandemic is having on children. […]