Disadvantaged Couples Program

Support couples in disadvantaged communities with your donation dollar, your networks and your prayers this Lenten Season!

As Ash Wednesday and the beginning of the Lenten Season approached we had two requests from clergy on opposite sides of the globe.

The first was a Deacon from rural Australia, who called us humbly requesting a scholarship on behalf of an Engaged couple in his community who had just migrated from the Philippines. They were getting married but with the many costs of moving to Australia they could not afford the modest enrolment fee for our Engaged online marriage preparation course.
Thanks to benefactors we were able to grant this couple a scholarship.

The second request was from Fr Dominic ministering in South Africa, who explained that the internet there can be unreliable at times and power outages happen often. He humbly asked if he could use the SmartLoving Engaged course material to present the program in person to his engaged couples, asking permission to print the course materials locally.

Thanks to your generosity our team can continue to say yes to these clergy, to spend time providing support to them, or adapting our course materials to serve couples in their community.

FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN HELP

Support Disadvantaged Communities this Lenten Season

We know that Australia, USA, UK and NZ are lucky countries and for most couples our course fees are a fraction of their budget. We also know that there are exceptions to this at home and that our exchange rate can make fees prohibitive to couples in disadvantaged communities abroad.

Our mission is to make the liberating insights and practical tools of SmartLoving available to all Catholic couples and we are proud to partner with donors across the globe in making this a reality through deep discounts and special offerings.

For example, we offer the Engaged course for just $5 AUD to couples in Africa, and $10 AUD in Malaysia. In addition, any couple in any country in financial hardship can apply for an individual discount.

Ways to Help

Contribute Financially

DOLLARS RAISED SO FAR

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GOAL: $10.000

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Introduce SmartLoving

NEW INTRODUCTIONS

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GOAL: 20

Do you know a priest, religious or other leader in a mission diocese or disadvantaged community who would benefit from our support? Here's how you can help:

Email us ([email protected]) with a brief explanation of the situation.
Reach out to your contact to share your enthusiasm for SmartLoving.
Do an email introduction so we can follow up with an info pack and video consultation.

Say a Prayer

PRAYER PLEDGED

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GOAL: 100

We can never have enough prayer! The work we do in promoting God’s vision for marriage can attract opposition –
please pray for us and our volunteers that we will be courageous and sensitive in all that we do.

Meet our SmartLoving Graduates

The photos of married couples that you see on this page are not stock photos - they are real SmartLoving graduates. Their feedback reflects the vast variety of couples supported in their formation for Catholic marriage through SmartLoving.

SmartLoving Engaged has prepared tens of thousands of couples globally for Catholic marriage. Our other programs support and challenge couples and spouses to continue their formation.

"It's a beautiful course to know each other and helps to grow each other as a couple."

Anumol and Jasmine carrying up the gifts for Holy Communion. They had been civilly marrried but wanted to get married in the Church too. Their wedding liturgy took place on the 29th of May 2021.

Anumol & Jasmine

Engaged Graduates

"After postponing our wedding from the 22nd of August to the 15th of May, we decided to take our marriage course slowly. It was a true blessing to be doing it with SmartLoving. Every topic has thought us something new - both about ourselves as well as about each other. This marriage course reaffirmed us that we are ready to start our life together and gave us the idea of what our marriage can look like if we love our partner smart, use the provided tools, but most importantly if we pray together as a couple and follow God in everything we do.

This is George and his wife Julita. Julita was living in Poland and George in the UK when they were preparing for marriage, the Engaged online course allowed them to prepare for marrriage despite living in different countries the course has closed captions in Polish and Spanish for international couples.

Julita and George | Poland + UK

Engaged Graduates

This is Sesilia and Eliu at their parish in Papakura, New Zealand. Sesilia wrote this to us: "The beauty of Marriage is being blessed and being able to receive the Sacrament of Matrimony. I am blessed to be on this journey with Eliu because he loved me to be able to marry me in my religion as a catholic girl. Marriage is beautiful." For couples where one fiancé is not Catholic the course explains what it means to be married in the Catholic Church.

Sesilia & Eliu | New Zealand

Engaged Graduates

"SmartLoving helped us both to better understand the blessing that it is to get married through the Catholic Church. We learned so much more about ourselves, Christ, and how to better communicate with each other."

Carlos and Fabiola who got married in Rockford, Illinois, USA. This is their feedback: "SmartLoving helped us both to better understand the blessing that it is to get married through the Catholic Church. We learned so much more about ourselves, Christ, and how to better communicate with each other."

Carlos & Fabiola | USA

Engaged Graduates

Sadi and Radek from the diocese of Uppsala, Sweden. After completing the Engaged course they then went on to enroll in the Marriage Kit (a course for married enrichment). SmartLoving has resources to accompany a couple through all stages of their relationship.

Sadi and Radek

Our mission continues

Expand our reach in disadvantaged communities

We would love to continue our support of couples across disadvantaged communities as well as developing countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America.

Let communities know about what we offer

We need to let leaders know about our courses through marketing campaigns, emails, phone calls and the printing and posting of leader information packs. It costs us $30 - $70 for each one (postage costs vary).

Our closed captions translations project

The closed captions available in English, Spanish, Polish and Mandarin on our Engaged course videos are being used by international couples and those for whom English is a second language. The closed captions also make the course more accessible to the hearing impaired. We will continue to translate our courses into other languages to reach more couples.

Complete! Refilming of A Total Gift of Self (Lesson 7)

Thanks to you, our generous donors, we have completed the re-make of the Total Gift of Self film. As we tweaked some of the original script we are focused on updating the closed captions on that Lesson 7 in Mandarin, Spanish and Polish.