The Indian-born priest parishioners about the longstanding history of prejudice and generational poverty faced by the Santal tribe in India. Parishioners acted quickly, launching an Advent sponsorship program, with donations of $35 a month or $420 a year providing education, meals, boarding and uniforms for one student.
But in the year-plus since, those efforts have gone into overdrive, with parishioners galvanizing around Tribe Rising India, a nonprofit organization created by Mt. Carmel parishioners Paul and Annette Venables that has raised $150,000 to date to help tribal children in one small village by expanding the capacity of the school which currently ends at the fourth grade, according to the Catholic San Francisco news organization.