The Manquehue movement was founded in Chile in 1977. It can be described as a lay Benedictine community, centred around lectio divina. It comprises both men and women, married and single, of all ages. The movement runs a number of schools, including San Lorenzo, a free school with a thousand or so pupils, situated in a deprived district of Santiago in Chile. Although 80% of San Lorenzo’s funds come from the State, making up the rest is not easy and the college is reliant on private and corporate grants. Many of these bodies will not fund pastoral or theological programmes.
The Douai Foundation has therefore sponsored the college’s leadership workshops for older pupils, and mentoring programmes for younger pupils, for one year at a cost of around £3,000.