CANELA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Pennsylvania, USA and founded by a group of friends with long experience working in Latin America and Africa. Its mission is to support existing, well-proved educational projects for the formation of civic and spiritual values in Latin America and Africa.

 

Education in both the civic and the spiritual dimensions is an essential prerequisite for the success of any long-term development aid. Often this aid is sent before ensuring this kind of education. CANELA exists to bridge that gap in Latin America and Africa which has neutralized the effectiveness of so much public and private development aid.

 

CANELA currently focuses its aid on the support of educational projects that reach populations with limited access to higher education, primarily due to transportation and financial factors. Preferred projects train community leaders and educators who in turn are committed to organizing educational projects at the community level.

 

Supported projects include the School of Faith and Leadership in West Africa and the “Semillas de Esperanza” program in El Salvador and Guatemala. Both of these projects train community leaders who then give classes on responsible citizenship, hygiene, parenting, the peaceful coexistence of religiously and ethnically diverse populations, and small business administration to thousands of persons. CANELA’s main objective is that these proven programs are not limited to small groups because of financial limitations. Often, a small contribution to the printing of teaching materials or to the fuel costs of facilitators can mean extending a program to hundreds of potential students.  

 

Due to these programs, existing structures are being peopled by responsible and efficient actors, making services more reliable and creating corruption-free circles in many areas of West African and Central American life.

     

The Catholic Association for the New Evangelization in Latin America and Africa (CANELA) is a fully Catholic charity that supports men and women who bring the light of the Gospel to parts of Africa and Latin America where adherence to the faith is often in jeopardy.

 

     Founded by Catholics from throughout the US, and inspired by a similar charitable group in Germany, CANELA invites you to help the Catholic men and women of Africa and Latin America who have faithfully stepped into the breach to transform the lives of their fellow man.

 

 

    All of our staff are volunteers and several of them actually live in Latin America and Africa, so our overhead is very low (less than 5%) and our oversight is very high.