Projects funded from our Necessitous Circumstance Fund help projects with disadvantaged individuals or groups within Australia who have a particular necessitous need. Those assisted have often been among remote communities but some also in city areas. 

The MSC have a long tradition of ministry in the Northern Territory. Through our generous donors the Mission Office has been able to provide support to a large number of individuals. Our priests and brothers use these funds to provide small handouts or buy items to help people in immediate need.

Last year we were able to help people affected by the NSW bushfires with direct assistance through the schools, parishes and other contacts. Assistance was also provided to new migrants in Adelaide via a MSC Parish group.

Environmental projects are a new type of assistance that we seek donations toward. We have had a number of requests from our MSC family overseas to assist with programs that do not quite fit our other areas but are all related to improving the environment and land management practices. So far we have only been able to fund a couple of small projects in Africa and India, but we have requests to help some quite large projects in the Philippines and in the Pacific.

Environment projects can include: tree planting for forest rehabilitation, food production and soil stabilization; clean-up of the environment, especially water ways; Education and training for sustainable farming practices and improved cultivation; Planting mangroves to protect land against rising tides and create rich fish and bird habitat. Such projects can include components temporary employment and upskilling.

An example in the Philippines is a program that aims to develop long-term environmental sustainability for poor farmers that will be beneficial to the environment and at the same time help local development. It is a three-phase program with 10 farmers in training and education who can then pass this knowledge and these skills on to others.

HIV-AIDS and Health funding is provided for outreach and support, education programs, and funding of small and mobile clinics. From time to time we also assist special needs cases.

Last year we were able to provide seed funding to the organisation "Taking Paediatrics Abroad" who were able to use this money to set up remote video consultation between specialists in Australia and doctors in low and middle income countries.

HIV-AIDS support and education programs have been supported over the years in Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and South Africa.

We are especially focused on clean water projects as clean water has such important implications for life and health. Our annual calendar is the Living Water Calendar. More than 70% of the donations that we receive are specifically for clean water.

Requests come in many forms. In the Pacific requests are usually for water tanks. The tanks themselves are usually not too expensive, between $2,500 and $5,000 depending on the capacity, but getting them to remote islands or high in the mountains of Papua New Guinea can be challenging and costly.

In India and Africa there are many requests for deep borewells. These are more expensive as there is special equipment needed to bring to remote sites, so generally these cost around $15,000 in Africa and about half that in India. In South Sudan, where Sr Rita Grunke olsh has requested borewells for a number of communities, the driller has to bring his equipment and crew from neighbouring Kenya, and so the contractor will only come if there are at least four or five wells to drill.

Locations such as Vietnam have a lot of water but it is often polluted. They typically request water filtration systems that are usually located in a Parish or a clinic run by the Sisters and can provide clean water to the surrounding community. A large system can typically be purchased and installed for around $10,000.

In the Philippines and Indonesia water projects can be concrete tanks or smaller dug wells that use sand and charcoal filtration as part of the well to filter out dirt. As with water tanks the materials can be relatively cheap but getting those to remote locations may be costly.

Disadvantaged Youth programs can take many forms: part funding of school fees and scholarship, such as in the Philippines; funding of repairs to buildings or in some cases new buildings, especially in the Pacific in Nauru and Kiribati; assistance to skills and vocational training, such as Chevalier Training Centre in Fiji; purchase of equipment for science labs, library and computer equipment, for example at the MSC school in Dindigul in India. 

Youth programs can also include purchase of sports equipment and uniforms to create youth sports teams and get youth "off-the-streets" and engaged in positive activities. Or it can be the use of technology to provide higher education opportunities to remote students such as at Hope Academy in Papua New Guinea.

Over 60% of the world’s youth live in Asia-Pacific. This translates into more than 750 million young women and men aged 15 to 24 years. Transition to the labour market remains a major challenge as youth unemployment is more than double the rate of the total working age population. The proportion of adolescent and youth migrants in the total international migrant population is 19% in Asia and 13% in the Pacific, most of them are women.