Published August 21, 2008 @ 05:47AM PT

Some of you may have already seen this in our feed, but I think it's worth pointing out. Catholic Relief Services regional officer Laura Sheehan has written from Georgia about providing for the refugees of the conflict--it sounds like everything is still confusing and uncertain and unstable for the people who live there: Going from shelter to shelter, the team met with people who had lost everything and whose most basic needs-for water, bathrooms, and a way to cook donated food like rice and potatoes-were not yet met. One mother displayed a prescription for her three-year-old son, wondering how to contact a doctor. Another needed adult diapers. An elderly lady had fled her house so quickly that she was without her false teeth, and could not chew. I was very moved by the difficu... Read More

Published August 07, 2008 @ 12:08PM PT

Today Catholic Relief Services announced the first part of an intense long-term response to the global food crisis! One million dollars have been committed to help hungry people in six countries grow and be able to buy more food over the next two months.   See this video about how we can address the global food crisis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwXiekPVAw8 This is only the first part of a much larger response to the global food crisis. CRS president Ken Hackett said, “This food crisis is just beginning. By early next year, it will be deeper and broader as more segments of society are pushed into poverty by the combination of higher prices for food and energy worldwide. We must act now.”   To read about the response, click here. To learn more about the ... Read More

Published August 04, 2008 @ 07:28AM PT

“The thing is that in most of these communities there is no fireman coming around the corner.”    Holly Inuretta, Catholic Relief Services’ Latin American and Caribbean technical advisor for emergencies, shares her experience on what it takes to respond to natural disasters during hurricane season in Latin America and the Caribbean. What emerges in the interview is enlightening: disaster response is more than just sending in help after the storm hits, but a full time effort to help communities be prepared-because in the hours just after disaster strikes, every minute is crucial.   Read about it here: http://crs.org/dominican-republic/hurricane-preparedness/.    ~ Darcy Higgins Catholic Relief Services     --------... Read More

Published July 18, 2008 @ 06:00AM PT

After several nail-biting delays, the Senate has overwhelmingly voted to pass PEPFAR!   PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) is a crucial program that funds AIDS care, prevention and treatment in poor countries. Catholic Relief Services president Ken Hackett called it "one of the most outstanding programs our government has ever created." Many nonprofits, including CRS, depend on this funding to keep providing healthcare to people in need. And now CRS can continue to save lives without fearing interruption! Thank you so much to everyone who wrote to Congress or prayed for the success of the PEPFAR bill.   So many of our Change.Org supporters were here to help! Ambassador Dybul, the U.S. global AIDS coordinator, called CRS to say, "I can't str... Read More

Published July 16, 2008 @ 12:43PM PT

As the global food crisis continues, Catholic Relief Services has been urging Congress to provide more international food aid. Sean Callahan, our executive vice president for overseas operations, got to testify in front of Congress today! (If you’d like to read the testimony, go here: http://crs.org/newsroom/testimony/entry.cfm?id=1499)   We really hope that Congress listens to him and intervenes! The food crisis is dire*, but Americans really are in a position to help. Keep pressure on Congress to send more food assistance, learn more about why the global food crisis is happening and how we can solve it, and if you can, please consider donating to help bring relief.   Thank you, as always, for your prayers and support!     *I was struck when Ca... Read More

Published July 14, 2008 @ 05:49AM PT

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to see development work in action, check out the “Frontiers of Justice" tag at the Catholic Relief Services blog. Every year CRS and the National Catholic Education Association send a group of Catholic high school teachers to the developing world to learn firsthand about the difficulties facing people who live there and experience the work that CRS does. Read about how these high school teachers have found West Africa!   You might also want to check out other stories about ordinary Americans getting involved in relief and development.     ~Darcy Higgins Catholic Relief Services -------------------------- Find us on: MySpace Change.org Facebook YouTube Read More

Published July 10, 2008 @ 11:41AM PT

We are tremendously excited to announce we finally launched our Spanish-language website yesterday! The Spanish-language website is part of a larger initiative to reach out to Hispanics in the U.S. in a tangible way through donations, public policy advocacy and global solidarity. Keep an eye out for Spanish-language public service announcements on TV, radio, print, and the internet soon. In the meantime, the website already has some great pictures, videos, and stories up about Catholic Relief Services’ work in Latin America and across the globe.   Take a look: http://www.crsespanol.org  ~Darcy Higgins Catholic Relief Services      ------------------------------------------------ Find us on:   MySpace Change.org Facebook Read More

Published July 01, 2008 @ 12:28PM PT

CRS is giving away three of our stylish backpacks on Facebook. To enter to win, all you have to do is go to our fan page (become a fan if you are not already) and write a post on our wall by midnight EST of Wednesday, July 9th. Three winners will be drawn at random and contacted via Facebook; everybody will help raise attention to humanitarian efforts. Good luck! Thanks for helping us spread the word about CRS! -------------- Darcy Higgins Catholic Relief Services http://www.crs.org

Published June 27, 2008 @ 12:54PM PT

    “It has been a heavy month for the Church. In Dedeya, Fr. Benedict and his     group valiantly buried dead bodies, exposed to sun and rain for a month. It is a challenging work, for days together, many villages were a valley of bones, and now they are rested with dignity in a place. Elsewhere the caregivers, our volunteers, faced threats to their own physical and psychological health, living amidst contaminated water and rotting bodies…All the parishes have been turned into disaster response teams.” From Archbishop Charles Bo on the CRS blog is this moving letter about the continuing struggle for recovery from the cyclone in Myanmar and thanking everyone who has stood in solidarity with the people of Myanmar. Public attention on th... Read More

Published June 20, 2008 @ 06:47AM PT

This Friday, June 20th, is World Refugee Day. This year, the theme is “protection.” But who is a refugee? And why do they need protection? A refugee is a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his or her nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country or return there because there is fear of persecution.”  Read more.