Our Founder
My name is Henry "Hank" Grimsland. After several years of taking college students on mission trips to the rural areas of the Dominican Republic and Haiti, I felt the need to do whatever I could to help the children who are living in desperate poverty. Poverty is one of the major factors that will determine whether a child in the Dominican Republic or Haiti will finish their education.
In 2010 my wife Kate and I began sponsoring a Haitian immigrant girl in the D.R. In 2011 I took the next step and began the work of establishing the St. John Bosco Children’s Fund; a non-profit corporation that works internationally with Catholic educational institutions to help break the cycle of poverty by providing educational tuition sponsorship.
We currently work in the areas of Jarabacoa and Mao in the Dominican Republic and in Fort-Liberté, Haiti. Please consider joining Kate and I in helping the forgotten and impoverished children of Hispaniola. God bless you!
The Inspiration
The organization was named after one of the Catholic Church's most charitable saints, St. John Bosco. Learn more about him below by reading this excerpt from Catholic.org.
John Bosco, also known as Giovanni Melchiorre Bosco and Don Bosco, was born in Becchi, Italy, on August 16, 1815.
Raised primarily by his mother, John attended church and became very devout. When he was not in church, he helped his family grow food and raise sheep. They were very poor, but despite their poverty his mother also found enough to share with the homeless who sometimes came to the door seeking food, shelter or clothing.
In 1835, John entered the seminary and following six years of study and preparation, he was ordained a priest in 1841.
His first assignment was to the city of Turin. The city was in the throes of industrialization so it had slums and widespread poverty. It was into these poor neighborhoods that John, now known as Fr. Bosco, went to work with the children of the poor.
While visiting the prisons, Fr. Bosco noticed a large number of boys, between the ages of 12 and 18, inside. The conditions were deplorable, and he felt moved to do more to help other boys from ending up there.
He went into the streets and started to meet young men and boys where they worked and played. He used his talents as a performer, doing tricks to capture attention, then sharing with the children his message for the day.
When he was not preaching, Fr. Bosco worked tirelessly seeking work for boys who needed it, and searching for lodgings for others.
In 1859, Fr. Bosco established the Society of St. Francis de Sales. He organized 15 seminarians and one teenage boy into the group. Their purpose was to carry on his charitable work, helping boys with their faith formation and to stay out of trouble. The organization still exists today and continues to help people, especially children around the world.
