The Mission Office of the Society of the Divine Word’s Australian Province supports the works of missionaries all around the world.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors and benefactors, and using strict assessment and accountability criteria, the Mission Office is able to respond quickly to requests for funds to help with a wide variety of SVD projects and programs.
From natural disaster relief to long-term human development projects, donations to the overseas mission projects of the SVD make a real and lasting difference to people’s lives by bringing the love of Christ to those in need. In this way, our donors become our co-missionaries.
In 2012 the AUS Mission Office financed 73 projects, which were approved by the SVD generalate in Rome, and were spread around the world. A substantial portion of funds from the AUS Mission Office were directed to projects in India, where the need is very great. The funds went to development and employment projects for the poorest of the poor in Mumbai, central and eastern India, Guwahati, and Hyderabad. They were used for a variety of projects, including supporting schools for children from Indian tribes where education had previously been only a dream. Other funds were directed to projects in the Philippines, Thailand, Angola, Timor Leste, Central America, Madagascar, Brazil, Congo, Indonesian Timor, Botswana, Togo, the Urals and Bolivia.
Each and every project that we support around the world has its own positive impact on the lives of men, women and children living in difficult circumstances.
We give thanks to God for our donors and co-missionaries, and ask for God’s blessing upon you.
The Mission Office of the SVD Australian Province recently responded to a request from the SVD missionaries of Central India Province to send some much-needed financial assistance to support the Mahatma Gandhi High School in Khurda - a school which helps educate the poorest of the poor from India’s Tribal peoples. This school, run by SVD missionaries, not only educates those who would otherwise remain uneducated, but also promotes their human dignity as people made in God’s image.
Twenty-six year old Liezel Casio spent her childhood living near a dumpsite, with her family scavenging to make a living. Today, thanks to an SVD mission project, she lives in newly built housing, is studying at university and says she is blessed.
The poverty of her childhood is still very much present, but Liezel can finally see some hope for a better life because of her education.
The Mission Office of the SVD Australian Province is supporting a magnificent program in The Philippines which helps to move families off rubbish dumps and into housing and sustainable development. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, the AUS Mission Office has been able to provide the financial resources to build 40 houses for homeless Filipino families in Cebu. The AUS Province Mission Secretary, Fr Henry Adler SVD recently visited the project, and explains the hope he found there.