A View from India – The Vincentian Congregation and the 13 Houses Campaign

The Coordinator of the Famvin Homeless Alliance (Mark McGreevy) visited India. The following is one of a short series of reflections on the work the Vincentian Family in India is doing in the field of homelessness and in particular in celebration of the 400th Anniversary of the Vincentian Charism...

Home Visits in the Vincentian Tradition

Home visits have been entwined in the Vincentian Family’s service from its inception. Upon founding the first Confraternities of Charity in 1617, Vincent instructed the members to go ‘two by two’ to visit the sick and disadvantaged. This practice was extended to both the Congregation of the...

Hope for Venezuela’s Refugees | 13 Houses Campaign

Over the past two months, we have shared with you some of the 13 Houses Campaign projects under construction. But there are many more we hope to build in the coming months. Here is Peru’s 13 Houses dream. Peru has almost 1.8 million people in need of a home. Fr Cruz, a CM in the northwestern...

13 Houses for Homeless Families in Mexico I 13 Houses Campaign

13 Houses are being built for families who lost their home in the 2017 earthquake in the northeast town of Hueyapan in rural Mexico. The earthquake was so destructive it took rescuers over a week to access to the community. But one year later, many families are still homeless. Several of the...

Against the odds! | 13 Houses Campaign

Slum, Favela, Shanty Town... The names are different but the implications are all too often similar. Hundreds of thousands of people living crammed together in a tiny space in or around an urban area. Originally temporary but now morphed into something that feels so much more permanent. In some...

Winter is here! | 13 Houses Campaign

Winter is here: Tallinn, Estonia: -16° C; Beijing, China: -2° C; Chicago, USA: -12° C; ... As the temperatures plummet below freezing across the northern hemisphere, we tuck ourselves a little bit tighter into our warming winter coats. We put on that extra pair of socks, make sure we don’t forget...

The drop that makes the difference | 13 Houses Campaign

Kateryna quickly packed her bags in the Luhansk region of Ukraine in September 2015, only taking what was absolutely necessary for herself and her two small daughters. Her hometown had become too dangerous. Constant shelling had destroyed the homes around her. Fleeing was the obvious choice. But...

Guatemala Project for Volcano Victims | 13 Houses Campaign

Five branches of the Vincentian Family are collaborating to open a new project to help families who lost their homes after a volcanic eruption. 35 new homes will be built as part of the ‘Welcome Home Project’. The Fuego volcano erupted last year, killing dozens and rendering many more homeless....

The Vincentian Spirit of Medellín

‘Go to the poor,’ he said. St Vincent didn’t wait for the poor to come knocking. He was proactive in his charity. Sometimes people don’t want to ask for help. Sometimes people can’t ask for help, even though they need it. But St Vincent circumvented that, saying you are our sister, our brother....

Little Rock – The first 13 Houses Campaign project for homeless people officially opened

The first 13 Houses Campaign project for homeless people officially opened after renovation work was completed. The two-bedroom house lies in the city of Little Rock, Arkansas, and is run by the Vincentian homelessness charity, Depaul USA. It will become home to an individual or family who have...