Mexico

Mercy at a Glance

FoundedArea of MinistriesWebsite
1980Solidarity with and Working with the Poor, Migrants and Refugees; Cooperatives for Poor Women; Education; Healthcarewww.sistersofmercy.org

The Sisters of Mercy have ministered in Mexico since 1980. Initially, two sisters sisters worked with economically poor families in Rosarito, Baja California Norte, in providing food, clothing, and household items. Clare Manhart rsm continues this ministry. A major part of the ministry of Project Love, Hope, Trust is to provide for the education of kindergarten through preparatory school students by fundraising for tuition, uniforms, and school supplies. In addition, classes in computers, sewing, crafts, cooking, English, religion, and scripture are offered.

Betty Campbell rsm lives in Juarez, a Mexican border city. She lives in a barrio of maquiladora workers (sweatshop factory workers) in solidarity with people who are poor and is part of a community of contemplation and political action, Tabor House. This community receives many delegations from the United States. These visitors are shown how U.S. foreign policy is responsible for much poverty and violence in Latin America.

Other Sisters of Mercy live in border towns on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande and minister part-time in Mexico, providing pastoral services, alternative health services, and other forms of accompaniment to migrants and refugees.

Mercy educational and health care institutions in the United States are also involved in ministry in Mexico from week-long service trips for colleges to the regular medical trips of the Mercy Outreach Surgical Team of Scripps Mercy Hospital of San Diego, California. This surgical team of volunteer nurses, technicians, and doctors provides surgeries for needy children with cleft palates and lips, burn scars, crossed eyes, and other conditions. In the last two decades, they have assisted nearly 9,000 children and adults in Mexico.