For every dollar donated, Salesian Missions is able to ship $14 worth of critical goods to its programs.

NEW ROCHELLE, NY (May 9, 2022) Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Salesians of Don Bosco, recently launched its annual “Loaves and Fishes” fundraiser which raises funds to ship life-saving aid to more than 130 countries around the globe. Because the cost of shipping critical aid is far less than its value, donations are multiplied many times over. For every dollar donated, Salesian Missions is able to ship $14 worth of critical goods to its programs. The fundraising appeal runs through the end of June 2022.

Aimed at maximizing the impact of donor-assisted programs and answering the call for emergency aid deliveries, the Salesian Missions Property and Logistics Program is made possible by generous assistance from government and private sector partners. Millions of dollars in U.S. government-issued excess property and corporate in-kind donations are leveraged by an annual award to Salesian Missions from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Ocean Freight Reimbursement Grant for humanitarian aid shipments. This award enables the Salesian Missions Office for International Programs to transport shipments of humanitarian aid and development commodities at low to no cost.

Salesian Missions also maintains several key partnerships that help to secure and donate critical aid like food, water, medicine and housing supplies. Partnerships with organizations like Feed My Starving Children and Rise Against Hunger ensure that students in Salesian programs have access to life-saving food aid that provides healthy nutritious meals so youth can focus on their studies and receive an education.

“Thanks to the partnerships we’ve fostered with generous humanitarian organizations that donate these supplies, we are able to use the funds we raise through Loaves and Fishes to get critical aid directly into the hands of people who need it most,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “This aid ensures that poor youth and their families have access to the basic needs to survive and thrive in their communities.”

These partnerships are vital to poor youth in communities around the globe. In 2021, more than 3,700 families across several Salesian programs and educational centers in Haiti had access to better nutrition thanks to two shipments of Rise Against Hunger rice-meals. The food aid helped support nutritional efforts after the devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake on Aug. 14, 2021, that killed more than 2,000 people and left thousands injured and homeless. Families connected to Notre Dame du Rosaire Parish and Saint Ann Parish, along with students from Fondation Vincent and Don Bosco Lakay in Cap-Haïtien and in Port-au-Prince, were among the recipients.

In 2021, more than 20,000 people, mostly school children, also had access to better nutrition thanks to two shipments from Feed My Starving Children. The Salesian-run FUSALMO, located in the municipality of Soyapango in the San Salvador department of El Salvador, received the rice-meal shipments and distributed them to schools in the municipalities of Soyapango, San Miguel, and Santa Ana.

More than 30,000 Salesian missionaries are dedicated to caring for poor and at-risk youth in programs around the globe. Salesian programs assist poor and disadvantaged youth through education (academic, trade, agriculture) and workforce development initiatives, emergency relief and humanitarian aid, infrastructure support, clean water initiatives, and nutritional and health services. To learn more and make a donation, visit SalesianMissions.org/content/multiply.

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