Organization Profile

Covenant House Meets Vulnerability with Care

By Amber Cortes

Ana, a former resident of La Alianza in Guatemala, has successfully reintegrated with her family and is now practicing traditional weaving to earn income. Photo: Covenant House.

Covenant House is one of the oldest and largest charities in America dedicated to helping children and youth overcome homelessness and trafficking.  Though its roots are in Catholic social justice teaching, Covenant House serves all young people regardless of their backgrounds, religions, and beliefs.

Read More

Goalmaker

Mark Dasco, Director of Program Delivery Support for ChildFund International

By Joanne Lu

Mark Dasco says that growing up in a poor family in a “far-flung village” in the Philippines taught him first-hand the realities of deprivation, exclusion, and vulnerabilities, but it also showed him just how resilient children and communities can be. But just because they are resilient doesn’t mean they should have to be.

Dasco is now the Director of Program Delivery Support for ChildFund International, and he works with country office teams around the world to implement strong core programs that advance the rights of children to education, survival, development, participation and protection. But throughout his decades-long career, he’s remained grounded in his home country, where his career began and where he continues to live.

As a child, Dasco says his parents always pushed him to study, because they saw education as the key to success and getting out of poverty. So when he started his career, he decided to become a high school teacher. He spent three years teaching English literature, world literature, Philippine literature, and world history. But after a couple years, a friend convinced him to apply for a position with a child sponsorship organization. He thought his main responsibility would be translating children’s letters to their sponsors into English. But to his surprise, when he got the job, he was assigned to a remote village to facilitate child-centered community development. There, he helped marginalized families organize and mobilize to promote their rights, demand the basic services they deserved, and participate in and benefit from development programs.

Read More