It was Mother Teresa’s work among the poorest of the poor which drew the world to her, and it is that spirit in which we wish to imitate. If you are a student at Ave Maria University and you wish to serve with the Missionaries of Charity this summer, please look at the opportunities we have for the summer of 2018 listed below! We have trips that are domestic and abroad. If you see an opportunity that you are interested in, please come to the Student Union February 27, 28, and March 1 for more information during lunch and dinner.

The Mother Teresa Project has visited Calcutta six times. Seventy-one Ave Maria University students have cared for the children and the dying in the town where Mother Teresa coined the term, “the poorest of the poor.” Students serve at four houses in Calcutta: Kalighat, Prem Dan, Daya Dan, and Shishu Bhavan. On this trip, Ave students are also able to celebrate mass with the Sisters in the M.C Motherhouse, pray by the tomb of Mother Teresa, and walk the same slums where Mother Teresa began her apostolate.

The Missionaries of Charity house in Namugongo, Uganda is where the thirty-one Ave Maria students have stayed on three separate mission trips. The students reside five minutes from the Basilica of The Uganda Martyrs dedicated to St. Charles Lwanga and his companions. The M.C Sisters led the students through the daily work at the homes for the elderly and handicapped children. Ave students also have the opportunity to take to the streets with the Sisters and visit the homeless and home bound in the town. The students are also able to join over 200 inmates in praise and worship ministry.  

The Mother Teresa Project added Brazil to our list of destinations last year and was fortunate enough to make two separate trips! Fourteen students served in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. All students stayed in the Sisters’ compound in Alagados. The male students typically leave in the morning to serve at Malvinas, a home for men, while the female students stay at Alagados.  At both houses the students play with children at the daycare, care for the elderly, and go with the sisters to visit families in the street.

Thirty-six students over the course of five trips have attended the annual five-day mission trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ave Maria University students’ lodging lies within the walls of the Missionaries of Charity’s compound in the Delmas 31 neighborhood. At Delmas, students serve underprivileged babies and children. Ave students also tend to the sick at the Sister’s dispensary in the San Joseph’s neighborhood, and dying at the Sister’s homes in Carrefour.

Mexico City is the mission site most visited by our students through the Mother Teresa Project. Seventy-nine students, spanning eight trips, have stayed at Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a home for handicap and disabled children, girls, and women. Student help to dress, feed, and care for the residents. Students also visit Our Lady Guadalupe Basilica, see the miraculous image on the tilma of St. Juan Diego, and visit the site of our Lady’s Apparition.

Forty-six students over the course of six trips have attended the Dominican Republic mission trip. Students’ lodging lies within the walls of the Missionaries of Charity’s compound in Mata de Palma. At Mata de Palma, the Ave Maria university students join the M.C.s in feeding, cleaning, and caring for the elderly.

On the mission trip to Ponce, Puerto Rico, Ave students are able to lodge within the walls of the Missionaries of Charity’s compound. From there, the MTP partakes in a variety of service opportunities, including prison ministry, caring for the elderly and disabled, as well as instructing catechism classes. Ave has only visited Puerto Rico once, bringing eight students and we look forward to returning in January to this beautiful work in P.R’s second largest city.

Tijuana is the MTP’s only mission trip offered exclusively for our male students. The students stay less than 10 miles from the border at the M.C. Father’s compound. The boys work with the Fathers caring for the homeless men in their shelter, feeding the poor in the soup kitchen, and visiting the home for the elderly as well as the home for the children.