St. Peter Claver Fund

Responding to the Hurricane Victims
of the Gulf Coast Region

The Jesuits of the New Orleans Province are working directly with evacuees, and also work in close collaboration with several ministries in poor communities that have been significantly challenged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. All of the South-Louisiana based organizations in this list need operating funds immediately for rebuilding and continuing work with the poor. For at least the next few years the New Orleans-based organizations will not be able to depend on their primary funding sources, namely donations from area residents and local foundations. Our province grant-writer will be directed to focus on obtaining new funding from outside of the Louisiana area for these works. We invite you to give to the St. Peter Claver Fund. Gifts given in general will be allocated by Father Provincial where there is the most pressing need; simply designate "Claver Fund" when you make your gift.

Jesuit priests in Louisiana have provided pastoral care and sacramental ministry to evacuees in shelters as well as staff and volunteers working with evacuees in Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and Houston. Fr. Jim Deshotels, a nurse practitioner, provided triage healthcare for a week in the Superdome immediately after Hurricane Katrina and will continue to work to respond to the healthcare needs of evacuees. Donations will help provide housing, transportation, and food for these priests who are providing care, comfort, and ministry to the displaced. As Provincial, Father Fred Kammer, SJ, has urged every Jesuit in the province to join in this pastoral ministry.

Boys Hope/Girls Hope receives grant dispersement check from Claver Fund

Boys Hope/Girls Hope, which houses and educates 12 low-income children in New Orleans, had damage to both of their residences. It is likely that the girls’ home will need to be demolished. The boys have relocated to Norco, LA and are attending Catholic schools in St. Charles Parish. The girls are enrolled in schools in Baton Rouge, and living in the home that Boys Hope, Baton Rouge, has generously offered to them (those boys have moved to a different temporary location.) The programs need donations for: tuition, since scholarships are not available at the children’s new schools; residential and psychological counselors' salaries; repairing and refurnishing Boys Hope; and acquiring a new building for Girls Hope.   Visit their website

Café Reconcile receives first grant check from the Claver Fund

Café Reconcile, a job training and economic development project in the central city of New Orleans, only sustained minor damage. With some equipment replacement and cleanup, the café has begun providing meals to rescue and rehab workers in the city — and that means that both evacuees and helpers have begun to work again! Funds are needed to pay for coordinators’ salaries and temporary housing for restaurant and reconstruction workers until the business is back in full swing.

Good Shepherd students receive grant check for their school from the Claver Fund

The Good Shepherd Nativity School, also in downtown New Orleans, educates 90 children from low-income families. Most of these children’s families were not able to evacuate on their own, and so were among those housed in horrific conditions in the Superdome and Convention Center. Principal Karen Ranatza has only been able to locate about half of the school’s families, but all of them are anxious to return to school as soon as possible. To do so, however, the school will need to help children replace all of their books, supplies, school uniforms, and shoes that were lost in the flood, and to assist some families in finding new housing. The school provides free tuition that is raised through different events, including their big October Gala which was cancelled. Cash donations are needed to replace all of those operating funds raised through the gala and other donations by New Orleans area residents.   Visit their website

The Harry Tompson Center for the Homeless, a day shelter ministry of Immaculate Conception Parish was also badly flooded. They will need to replace office furniture, 20 tables, 100 chairs, 4 washers and dryers, 2 shower stalls and 2 computers. Operating funds for staff and supplies, which are derived primarily from donations from New Orleans residents, will be needed immediately upon reopening their doors. Overnight shelters in New Orleans are already beginning to accept residents, whose only refuge and support during the day was the Tompson Center.

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Remember that any cash contribution to relief efforts is tax-deductible.

Make a Contribution Now Online

If you care to mail in a check to support any of these institutions in either fund, you can make your check payable and send your gift to:

The Jesuits
710 Baronne Street - Suite B
New Orleans, LA 70113-1064

Please write St. Peter Claver Fund or Fr. Pedro Arrupe Fund on the memo line of your check. If you would like your gift to go to a particular ministry/institution, please note that on the memo line as well.

If you have any questions or concerns, please call The Jesuits at 504.571.1055 or at 800.788.1719.

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