Survive-MIVA Archives - revealing the story of a Catholic lay association

Liverpool-based Catholic charity Survive-MIVA has been in operation since 1974, funding the purchase of vehicles to support the Church's healthcare and pastoral outreach in countries of the Global South. In that time, it has accrued a large volume of records and ephemera, including photos, Super-8 film, minutes of Trustees meetings, and funding applications from all over the world. Recently. the charity has been reassessing this corpus, and has become aware of its archival value

The material chronicles the inner workings of the charity, giving insights into how a Lay Association organised itself, how it made decisions and dealt with ethical and practical issues, and particularly, how attitudes to overseas aid have changed since the 1970s. And, because Survive-MIVA is a grant-giving charity, it also holds a complete set of 50 years' worth of successful grant applications, containing detailed first-hand accounts from missionaries in Africa, Latin America and South Asia detailing their work, their lives, and the lives of the communities they serve. There are few archival collections that cover this kind of material at all; and the inclusion of material from over 50 different countries makes the Survive-MIVA archive unique in its scope.

Help from the Catholic community

The picture above is an example of an image from the collection - a mid-70s photo showing Liverpool University students who were involved in the charity in its early years. But there's no record of who the young women are, and Survive-MIVA needs the help of the Catholic community, especially in Liverpool, to fill in some of the information gaps. So for instance, if you know who any of the people in this photo are, please contact comms@survive-miva.org and let the charity know.

Storing the collection

This fascinating collection is now being safely held at the heritage centre run by the Mill Hill Missionaries, at Formby, near Liverpool. Anyone can make an appointment to consult the records; and anyone interested is welcome to contact Survive-MIVA first (comms@survive-miva.org) for help on how to find what they are looking for.

Cataloguing and sharing the Archive

To make it easier to find information in the Archives, Survive-MIVA has engaged archivist Lawrence Gregory to begin cataloguing the material.

As a result of this initial work, Lawrence will be speaking at a symposium to be held on Zoom on Thursday 10th September 2026, called Catholic Lay Society Collections: New Perspectives on a Hidden Heritage. The event runs from 1pm to 5pm, and is free to attend - sign up on Eventbrite HERE

Survive-MIVA will be seeking funding to enable further cataloguing work, to give a deeper understanding of the stories that are hidden in the records; and hopefully, to digitise the material so it can be accessed in other countries, by the people whose lives are recorded in it.