Missionary Childhood Association
Country of the Month Archive
As members of the Missionary Childhood Association, students have a direct impact on the lives of their brothers and sisters in over 1,100 mission territories around the world. These lesson plans give a brief overview of the featured country (including country and continental maps) as well as an example, with pictures, of the work that missionaries accomplish with your students’ help. Country facts and statistics come from a variety of sources: CIA World Factbook, World Atlas, Wikipedia, and various (Arch)diocesan websites, among many others.
The Americas
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MCA in Bolivia
Many children in rural Bolivia spend their days on the street, in the marketplace while their parents work as vendors or tradespeople. This leaves the older children to care for their younger siblings in less than safe surroundings. With help from the Missionary Childhood Association, the Sisters of the Beatitudes are running a school for these children while running a cottage industry of their own – producing textbooks. This business supports local workers and provides income for the school, too.
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MCA in Brazil
We hear directly from many of the recipients of the generosity of our Missionary Childhood members. Read how a pastor in the slums of Rio de Janeiro is able to provide weekly food baskets to parishioners as he brings the Sacraments of our faith to them as well.
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MCA in Colombia
In Columbia, Missionary Childhood is known by these initials: IAM, for Infancia y Adolescencia Misionera. Read about how IAM members kept their meetings up during the COVID shutdown and managed to help fund a comedor, or feeding program, too.
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MCA in Cuba
Read how a group of US missionaries went to Cuba and gathered children together under a common language – baseball! Through a love of the game, learn how the missionaries were able to teach some basics of our faith to children who has yet to hear of it, all the while encouraging the growth of Cuba’s own MCA program!
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MCA in Canelos, Ecuador
Padre Patricio runs a Missionary Childhood funded boarding school and day school in Canelos in the Vicariate of Puyo, Ecuador. Younger students walk to the day school, some treading many miles to do so. Older children learn vocational skills at the boarding school. All learn the Gospel values of Jesus Christ, thanks to MCA members. Read more about their Amazonian home here.
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MCA in Esmeraldas, Ecuador
In times of natural disasters, Missionary Childhood is called upon to help! After the 2016 earthquake that left 30,000 people homeless, MCA was in direct contact with the local priest, a Divine Word Missionary, who helped channel our support to where it was needed most. We created the #AidForEcuador campaign and sent help to feed children in shelters. Learn more here about the work missionaries are called to do in every situation imaginable!
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MCA in Haiti
Missionary Childhood members have made it possible for children in northern Haiti to have access to clean drinking water! Read about the results of this project and the impact it has had on the lives of the village children in healthcare, education, and employment for the parents!
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MCA in Jamaica
Pre-school can be a lively place no matter what country it’s in! Thanks to MCA members from around the world, there is a lot going on at Christ the Savior Pre-School in Kingston, Jamaica! Little ones in the nearby slums get a hot meal and have access to a free medical clinic at school while they learn how much God loves them.
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MCA in Peru
Outside the city of Lima Peru are mountains made of sand. Little by little, they are being taken over by shacks built by people who come from the mountains in search of jobs and education. Read about the missionaries, who, with help from the Missionary Childhood Association, are bringing Jesus Christ into the shanty towns, while giving children a chance at a better life.
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MCA in Venezuela
Missionary Childhood members showed off their own “mission-minded” sprit during the Congreso Americano Misionera – a Pan-American Mission Congress held every 5 years in The Americas. MCA members opened their homes and parishes to delegates to the Congreso from every country of North and South America, even though they were enduring a rationing of their own food!