About Family & Life
Family & Life
The charitable work of Family & Life is focused on protecting human life and helping women, children, unborn babies and families in vulnerable situations. Our work focuses on alleviating poverty in its complete definition. Some of our major projects focus on material impoverishment while others focus on intellectual impoverishment.
This work is supported by the direct donations of our supporters. Our donors live in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales. We are not affiliated to any other organisation. We do not receive nor seek state, organizational or corporate funding, nor do we engage in street collections, lotteries or the for-profit sale of goods. We plan and conduct our activities from our National Information Centre at 26 Mountjoy Square, Dublin 1.
Our work falls under three headings, Primary Projects, Support Activities and Communication; most of our financial and human resources are allocated to Primary Projects.
1: Primary Projects
St Patrick Fund (formerly the Good Shepherd Fund)
For nearly 13 years Family & Life has organised an annual appeal to help people in dire poverty. This appeal was known as the Good Shepherd Fund. This Fund was initially established in response to reports from Thailand of teenagers enslaved by the prostitution industry who were forced to undergo abortions.
Today the Fund continues to provide financial assistance to children born into conditions of extreme poverty with a particular emphasis on rescuing children from the streets of Thailand and the Philippines.
Assistance has also been provided to purchase important child vaccines in Central America; to support children at a school in Bethlehem; to fund a pregnancy counselling service in Russia and to provide materials for seminarians in Africa. At the two main centres in Bangkok and Manila,
Family & Life’s annual fund has provided for additional housing, a school extension, computer equipment, medical supplies and educational resources and support. Many children have been spared a life of extreme poverty and sexual exploitation and abuse as a result of the generosity of Family & Life supporters.
Family & Life is committed to continuing and expanding this important project. As part of our renewed effort in this area we have decided to rename the fund. Henceforth, this annual appeal will be known as the Saint Patrick Fund.
Family & Life has a long association with a number of pro-life groups in Poland. We fund counselling centres in Poland and Russia which assist pregnant women who find themselves in financial difficulty. We also help produce educational materials for Polish schools.
Pregnancy Advice Helpline
Family & Life provides help and assistance to women who call their helpline seeking advice and assistance. In many cases, women can’t afford the cost of baby equipment and lodging and so contemplate abortion. Our staff direct problems to the appropriate agency and in cases of poverty provided finance to assist the woman during her pregnancy.
National Information Centre
Our head office in Mountjoy Square acts as a national drop-in information centre. From this centre, we meet and talk to women who are contemplating abortion or who are suffering from post-abortion syndrome. We also provide a qualified psychiatric consultation for women in difficult financial circumstances. The centre also provides a reading room for the public and a free materials pick-up service.
Medical Models for Schools
Every year Family & Life sends set of medically-accurate foetal models to 250 schools. The object of this project is to overcome the intellectual impoverishment surrounding students’ understanding of the development of the unborn child and also to instil a sense of respect for life at its most vulnerable stages.
Educate for Life
Every week our staff and volunteers visit schools around Ireland delivering a multi-media presentation on the development of human life followed by a discussion about abortion. The object of this project is to overcome the intellectual impoverishment surrounding students’ understanding of the development of the unborn child and also to instil a sense of respect for life at its most vulnerable stages. The format then develops into a one-to-one Q&A session with students.
Beer Mat Advertising
Throughout the year, we place pregnancy assistance information on beer mats in pubs. The beer-mat provides useful contact information and revolves around a question and answer format which attempts to persuade individuals to discuss the value of life while also directing readers to the Family & Life website.
Cinema Commercial
As part of F&L's ongoing work to persuade women with unwanted pregnancies not to kill the child they are carrying, F&L commissioned the making of a 30 second film (Life is Precious) for broadcast in cinemas throughout Ireland. In its first showing, it reached over 200,000 people per week. This is the first and only pro-life commercial in Ireland, and is specifically aimed at young people. We show it in Irish cinemas for six-week periods at least twice yearly.
Documentaries
Family & Life has produced two film documentaries. These cover a range of life-related issues from stem cell research to abortion. They also outline the help available to women in difficulty. The aim of these documentaries is to provide individuals with reasoned arguments as to why we should support a Culture of Life. These documentaries are hugely successful, thousands have been given away freely for use in parish, school and home and both are repeatedly broadcast on satellite, through the EWTN network.
Our Vaccine Programme provided funding to purchase vaccines for a impoverished village in Ecuador; our Bethlehem School Programme provided funding to school children suffering from material poverty and our Nigerian Seminarian Programme sends materials to young men with limited financial resources.
2: Support Activities
Research Department
There is a constant need to keep abreast with the latest research in the area of bioethics and reproductive technology. We monitor developments in the United Nations and the European Union, and respond with detailed submissions when the Irish government seeks advice on family and life issues. In addition, we sponsor various conferences throughout the year.
3: Communication
Website
LifeZine
Personal Update Newsletter
Our Website, www.familyandlife.org is providing up-to-date information on Irish and international pro-life and family matters. It also contains the LifeZine bi-weekly pro-life news bulletin, the Personal Update newsletter and free materials for individuals and groups. The website focuses on national pro-life and family news items and is an attempt to redress the intellectual impoverishment which surrounds this issue.