World Villages for Children was established in the UK in 1998.
Our focus is international, and our goal is to end poverty for the world’s most deprived children through the provision of education. We do this by funding live-in schools and day-care centres run by our partners, the Sisters of Mary, for the most disadvantaged boys and girls across the globe.
Education is key to ending poverty and creating lasting change
Children can only learn where they are safe and secure. Since 1998, we have contributed to the development of the Sisters’ humanitarian, education programmes. Their highly effective and low-cost programmes are for children of any faith, or none, between the ages of three to 18, and the Sisters bring country expertise, compassion for the poorest children and a deep understanding of the long term impact of poverty on children, families and local communities.
Working closely with our family of independent, affiliated charities in the US and EU, our supporters help us care for and educate the poorest children. There are now almost 20,000 children each year in school places in 13 secondary schools, one elementary school and three day-care centres run by the Sisters of Mary in the Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Brazil, Honduras, and most recently Tanzania.
The education is accredited by the authorities in each country and the humanitarian impact of the programmes is well recognised nationally and internationally.
At the schools, the children receive full-time care, regular meals, the comforts of a proper childhood and an extensive vocational education delivered by local teachers and designed to equip the children for local job vacancies. With skills and qualifications, the children find reliable paid work, independence, and a poverty-free future.
Over 150,000 children have graduated from the schools to date. The education and experience at school profoundly improves their employment potential, their lives and the lives of their families and communities.
Father Al and The Sisters of Mary
The humanitarian work of the Sisters of Mary owes its origin to Father Aloysius Schwartz. More affectionately called “Father Al” by those whose lives he touched, he was a champion of the poor and provided a safe home and place to learn for countless deprived children throughout the world.
Born in 1930, Father Al grew up wanting to become a priest and work as a missionary serving the poor, and in 1944 he entered a Seminary. He was ordained as a diocesan priest in 1957 and assigned to Busan, South Korea later that year, where he helped the many orphans and children from the poorest families affected by the Korean war.
The first programmes in South Korea
After initially opening orphanages to care for the children of South Korea, Father Al introduced a programme of teaching, providing them with skills to find work and become more independent – and so the education programmes as they are currently known began.
Recognising that he needed help to lead and grow this charitable mission, he founded the religious congregation of the Sisters of Mary to help him serve the poorest of the poor.
Thanks to the financial contributions of his friends and supporters, Father Al built the first schools for Children (known as Villages) in Busan, South Korea in 1968 and following the invitation of the Mayor of Seoul, this programme expanded into that City including the development of hospitals and hospices for the homeless.
Bringing education programmes to more countries
In 1985, at the invitation of the government, this mission expanded into the Philippines.
In 1989, Father Al was diagnosed with the terminal illness Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). But despite his deteriorating health, with the help of the Sisters, he went on to establish the first school for Children in Mexico in 1990.
Father Al died at the girlstown in the Philippines in 1992. He named Sister Michaela Kim of the Sisters of Mary as his successor. Under the leadership of Sister Michaela, and then Sister Maria Cho and the 390 Sisters of Mary, Father Al’s mission continued and expanded into Central and South America – first into Guatemala, then Brazil and Honduras.
In 2019, the South Korean programmes were handed back to the state as charity intervention was no longer a need in the country and the resources have been redeployed in the latest programme in Tanzania.