FAIRFIELD—When Alvaro Ramos was growing up in Madrid, he asked his parents if he could learn to play golf. They encouraged the 13-year-old by buying him a set of clubs and letting him use the backyard.
Eventually, they got him a membership at a golf course, where he encountered other kids his age—but they weren’t hitting the links. They had left school to support their families by working as caddies, groundskeepers and janitors.
It was this privileged young man’s first exposure to poverty—a vision that stayed with him and ultimately inspired him to change his life.
“Even at my age, I saw it was very unfair, and it stayed in the back of my mind,” he recalled. “I realized I needed to take advantage of opportunities. I was playing golf with lawyers and bankers and entrepreneurs. On the other hand, I realized I had been lucky. I wasn’t special. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
And he took advantage of those opportunities by earning a JD from the Jesuit University of Spain and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduating, he carved out successful careers as a corporate lawyer, investment banker, private equity executive and social entrepreneur.
Today, however, Father Alvaro Ramos is on a different path. He is a Catholic priest in Tegucigalpa, serving the poor in Honduras by coordinating the mission Association, Collaboration and Effort, which helps 12,000 marginalized students from kindergarten to college make a better life through education.
“I want to help people who did not have the opportunities I had,” he said. “Becoming a priest allowed me to partner with God to help the impoverished with the best business plan possible—changing the world.”
Ordained in 2018, he is assigned to the parish of St. Teresa of Calcutta in the capital of the second poorest country in the Americas, where he lives in one of the city’s impoverished neighborhoods.
The mission, which is supported by some 30 volunteer groups and parishes in Spain and Canada, is managed by the high school and college students it sponsors.
Father Ramos, who recently spoke at Iona College, Seton Hall University, Sacred Heart University and Regis High School, said, “We are creating a new generation with a mindset to take care of the whole country. They must undo the corruption and help people who need food, proper education and a sense of responsibility.”
Father previously worked in international law, advising clients in the United States and the United Kingdom, in addition to a position in the investment banking division of Bank of America. During those years, he pursued some initiatives to eradicate poverty by sending funds to organizations in Latin America; however, his philosophy evolved and he came to the conclusion that he could use his business skills better as a priest. And he gets no salary for his work with the mission.
“I always tried to find partners in different enterprises, but they were often afraid of doing business with the poor,” he said. “Then, I realized God is my partner. If you want to help the poor, Jesus is going to be by your side. I have experienced that myself. When I started to read the Gospel, it resonated. I realized God was guiding me in the right direction.”
He eventually entered the seminary in Honduras and teamed up with Father Patrecio Larrosa, who went there from Spain to found the mission, which he continues to lead 30 years later.
“I realized the best way to help the poor is to live with the poor as a priest,” he said. “It took me some time. I learned that in order to change the life of the poor, you need to live with the poor, and I couldn’t do that by myself.”
The mission, which works in 11 regions of the country is involved in more than 100 projects with the goal of filling the gap between what the government does and what families do, Father said. The projects allow students in rural and marginalized areas to go to school from kindergarten to college.
“Our idea is to educate students early on and for the long term,” he said. “The students run the organization, and we only help them as long as they help others. They learn and they give back. Real poverty isn’t lack of money. The real problem is when people don’t help each other, and this is something that needs to be taught.”
One thousand people, including 400 from the community and 500 university students run the operation. The youngest ones work in the dining room, and by the time they reach high school, they start assisting with administration. The oldest students are leaders in the mission.
When Father talks to college students in America, he tells them: “You could make a lot of money, but a lot of people need your help, and at some point in your life, you will have to stop thinking about making more money and having an easy life. It’s not fair for me to live in a world where I have plenty and people are starving. At the end of the day, if you want to be happy, you won’t be happy making money or getting power; it will be in the love you share.”
Katherine Friend of St. John Church in Darien was a classmate of Father Ramos at the University of North Carolina and has helped him spread his message about the Honduras mission in Fairfield County.
“When we sat next to each other in business school, I really had no idea about his vocation or his faith,” she said. “It’s been such a grace to witness how he has used education and business experience to answer his call to holiness and … to bring people out of poverty in one of the poorest countries in the Americas.”
For more information about Association, Collaboration and Effort, whether to volunteer, sponsor a student or offer assistance, contact Father Ramos at alvaroramos@acoes.org
