Estela Ruiz
Mary's Ministries, ECDC, and NFL-YET
Mary's Ministries, ECDC, and NFL\-YET
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The Ruiz family began their evangelism through the creation of Mary's Ministries, a lay Catholic organization that runs leadership faith camps, and proselytizes. Mary's Ministries has branches in [Linares](/wiki/Linares%2C_Chile "Linares, Chile") [Chile](/wiki/Chile "Chile"); [Sullana](/wiki/Sullana%2C_Peru "Sullana, Peru"), and [Lima](/wiki/Lima "Lima"), [Peru](/wiki/Peru "Peru"); [Cuenca](/wiki/Cuenca%2C_Ecuador "Cuenca, Ecuador"), [Ecuador](/wiki/Ecuador "Ecuador"); [Hirador](/wiki/Hirador%2C_Colombia "Hirador, Colombia"), Southern [Colombia](/wiki/Colombia "Colombia"), [Franca](/wiki/Franca "Franca"), [Brazil](/wiki/Brazil "Brazil"); [Hermosillo](/wiki/Hermosillo "Hermosillo"), [Sonora](/wiki/Sonora "Sonora"), Mexico and in the [Mexican](/wiki/Mexico "Mexico") [states](/wiki/States_of_Mexico "States of Mexico") of [Coahuila](/wiki/Coahuila "Coahuila") and [Durango](/wiki/Durango "Durango").
[thumb\|175px\|right\|A traditional representation of the Virgin Mary](/wiki/Image:Blessed_Virgin_Mary.jpg "Blessed Virgin Mary.jpg")
The desire for spiritual improvement led to a will to better the lives of people "in the world", which spawned several organizations. The ESPIRITU Community Development Corporation (ECDC), an outgrowth of Mary's Ministries, is a community development association designed to alleviate the suffering that results from the [poverty](/wiki/Poverty "Poverty") of the barrio. The ECDC helps finance the development of low\-income housing and lobbies for commercial development in the South Phoenix area, but its main function is to develop international, principle\-based, servant leaders, which is in part accomplished by running the [NFL](/wiki/NFL "NFL") Youth Education Town (NFL\-YET), one of Arizona's first and largest [charter schools](/wiki/Charter_school "Charter school"), and its satellite campus in [Safford](/wiki/Safford%2C_Arizona "Safford, Arizona"). In Africa, Mary's Ministries has a missionary (Mary house) in Uganda, in East Africa, with 5 missionaries carrying forward Mary's Ministries' mission.

The NFL\-YET, formerly called Esperanza Montessori Academy, was enlarged to serve over 600 students after receiving a million\-dollar grant from the NFL in 1996\.


What kind of organizations did the Ruiz family create to help people in the world?