Hussein, a 23-year-old man living in a volatile region of Lebanon, is part of CRS’ peacebuilding programs for youth. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS

“I hated what happened…we knew two guys who died in Beirut. I don’t feel safe any more. I am not even worried about my future but about what will happen tomorrow morning.”

These fearful words by a 24-year-old man about last May’s fighting in Lebanon underscore the tensions that threaten this fragile Middle Eastern country. There are more than a dozen political parties in Lebanon, 18 religious groups, and involvement from other countries who see Lebanon as key to advancing their own interests. Too often ordinary Lebanese feel powerless before their own political leaders and those of other countries.

Lebanon has been in the news a lot recently. In May, it chose a president after months of deadlock marked by assassinations and fighting. Last week, it named its government ministers after an 18-month standoff. This week, it exchanged prisoners with Israel, bringing some closure to the war of summer 2006. Everyone watching this complex, troubled land hopes it can overcome a decades-old legacy of violence.

With its peacebuilding programs, CRS is helping Lebanese communities to find common ground. In the south of Lebanon, where political and religious divisions among Shia, Sunni, and Christian groups have caused problems, CRS partners ask people from opposing factions to brainstorm projects everyone in a town can agree on. These “consensus building” programs focus on improvements like better water and electrical systems. In Minyeh, a poor town in the north of Lebanon, CRS works with local partner Na-am to teach young people in their 20s about good government. The young people ask their neighbors what would make their community better, and then work with town authorities and with each other to make it happen. Youth are having strong impact — in one town the adults have noted that the municipality picks up the trash more frequently now that the youth are more involved. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s my first time in Cambodia, and I am interested to see more of it. We started out the week down south, visiting beneficiaries who had received small grants to start up or expand agricultural businesses, like selling tree seedlings or digging ponds to hold year-round supplies of wild fish. I’ve seen lots of similar development projects over the years, and I know they work. Poor people in most developing countries know how to make money – they just don’t have access to the startup capital they need to do it. A grant of $50 is all the start-up many people need to begin earning a viable income.

Photo by dave Snyder for CRS

Mid-week we headed west to visit the Chambok ecotourism site, near the Kirirom National Park, which you can find in most guidebooks. What you may not be able to find is more information about the Chambok site – more than 1,200 hectares of lush forest, and a still fledgling effort by locals to earn their living by preserving the forest – a new concept in much of impoverished Cambodia, where natural resources are often quickly consumed out of necessity. With CRS help, the communities within the Chambok site are working to draw tourists from both inside and outside Cambodia. Through entrance fees, guide services, accommodation and food sales, the community is working to sustain itself, and preserve the environment. It’s amazing how much of an impact even a few tourist dollars can make. Entrance fees are $3 for foreigners - .25 cents for Cambodians – and a night of accommodation in the home of a local, who like all at the site shares in the profits, is another $3. Having seen so much environmental destruction in much of the developing world, where resources are often seen only as quick cash or cooking fuel, it was a delight to see people working hard to save what they do have, and support themselves in the process. We all benefit from such efforts. I’d encourage you to learn more about the Chambok group at www.geocities.com/chambokcbet

Back in Phnom Penh tonight, and heading out Sunday for more projects. Fitting on this night to see fireworks over the city. I don’t know where they are coming from, but it’s nice to be reminded of home.

A flooded neighborhood. Photo by Ryan Russell/CRS

Ryan Russell, CRS’ regional technical advisor for emergencies in the Asia Pacific region, wrote from Mindanao, Philippines, where he is working with staff and partners to carry out emergency relief for thousands of families who have been uprooted and devastated by Typhoon Frank:

In Mindanao, conditions in the camps are dire, with 12 to 15 families (up to 90 people) taking shelter in each classroom, and abysmal sanitation, sometimes none at all. While people are making their way home, there are still around 4,500 families whose homes are underwater, and it is not clear when they will be able to go back. It could be a few weeks or months since some major dikes and dams broke, and rivers have changed course.

For those going home, most have lost the crops they had just planted. Many were already having difficulties feeding their families and were dependent on government-subsized food, all brought on the last few months by a doubling in food prices, such as rice.

People are desperately in need of seed and tools if they are going to be able to feed their families down the road. Most took loans to plant what they just lost at an interest rate of 10 percent a month, and will still have to pay that back. A lot of the fields are covered in mud and sand, which will take weeks or months to repair before planting can occur.

Dear Friends,

After 45 days of hectic work, the Church and its group of committed volunteers take a pause from the long journey of rebuilding our people’s lives to express our deep gratitude to all of you who stood by us and the people of Myanmar in their hour of darkness.

Thousands are returning home, or where their home used to be. Children return to school, knowing some of their friends will not be here. Farmers are returning to a slowly healing land, wounded by the marauding sea on that fateful day. The Ayeyawady River is subdued into serenity after straddling killer waves and exhibiting dead bodies for a month.

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. Some have to be carried back to Yangon for medical attention.

All the parishes have been turned into disaster response teams. Food and non-food items are distributed through them. Many times the Buddhist monks are fellow sojourners in this act of mercy. Just a month ago, no family had wish or wherewithal to send their children [to school]. This month, with our support for uniforms, books and fee, hundreds of children are returning to the school. This return is healing and is the first signs of life to the battered communities. Hundreds of temporary shelters are coming up. Seeds are distributed. The Church is designing a healing process through psycho-spiritual training and trauma healing services.

The nightmare is slowly replaced with hope. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Myanmar (CBCM), all the religious and faithful, Karuna (national Caritas) and the Caritas International reiterate their commitment. We thank all of you at this juncture. Our work has been very challenging, done under great restrictions on access. But you all made our work rewarding by standing by us with your great fellowship. Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI evinced fatherly concern from the day one. He mourned with the Myanmar Bishops when they met him for their ‘ad limina’ visit. His Delegate Archbishop Salvatore Pennachio rushed in by the first plane available and personally interacted with the survivors and the caregivers all through these days. The churches from various nations contributed their mite and prayers to our work.

It has been a month of pain and sorrow for our people. But the tide is turning, because people like you felt their pain from far and rushed with assistance. The Church could save lives because of you. On behalf of those thousands who survived we owe a deep debt of gratitude to all of you. Once again we realize that the Universal Church is a mother who reaches out where there is a tear, a human brokenness.

It is still a long journey. The full recovery will take at least two years. Cyclone Nargis was nature’s nuclear attack on our people. There are villages destroyed without any trace. The farm lands are polluted with the sea water. The human asset is diluted, social assets destroyed, natural assets mutilated with wanton destruction. The poor of Myanmar, already handicapped by some of the worst permanent disasters, are crawling back to normalcy.

So our journey continues. The urgent needs are for setting up homes, shelter and regenerating the livelihoods through supply of seeds to farmers, encouraging micro enterprises. This has been a month of challenge, but a blessed challenge because we felt the power of human oneness, the unstinted support of the Mother Church and great generosity of human sprit among Myanmar’s people through their selfless service to their suffering brothers and sisters.

Our heartfelt thanks to every one of you,

In Solidarity,
Archbishop Charles Bo, S.D.B.

Justin Bartkus, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, is currently touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya with his mother, CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo. Here, Justin shares more impressions from the field.

Read the rest of this entry »

CRS joins with Caritas Internationalis in mourning the death of Archbishop Rahho of Mosul in northern Iraq. Archbishop Rahho was kidnapped last week and was found dead today. The following is a statement from Caritas Internationalis:

Caritas says the tragic death of Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul in northern Iraq highlights the urgency of ending the violence in the country and the region.

The archbishop was kidnapped on February 29 in Mosul after a deadly shootout in which three of his companions were killed. He was found dead on Thursday 13 March.

Caritas Internationalis, the umbrella organisation of 162 national Catholic charities that includes Caritas Iraq, said peacebuilding efforts need to be supported both within local communities, nationally and internationally to bring a halt to the conflict.

Caritas Iraq runs peacebuilding training courses in many places in the country, trying to break through distrust and suspicion among communities.

Caritas Internationalis Secretary General Lesley-Anne Knight said, “Archbishop Rahho was a man who sought peace and dialogue in a country at war. All sides of the conflict in Iraq have a duty not to target civilians. Archbishop Rahho supported peacebuilding efforts including those carried out by Caritas, which makes his death even more tragic and senseless. Caritas again calls for an end of all violence in Iraq and in the region, and for the safe release of all people taken hostage. Peace through dialogue is the only way forward.”

Caritas Iraq has been active since 1992 providing humanitarian relief, especially to new mothers and babies, and peacebuilding work since 2003.

Since 2003, CRS has been one of several Caritas Internationalis supporters of Caritas Iraq’s work with the internally displaced population and with those who have been marginalized within an increasingly desperate and violent situation.

As thousands of Palestinians stream from Gaza into Egypt following cutoffs in fuel and supplies, CRS staffers in the troubled region have contacted us with their stories of life during the blockade. One CRS project officer lives in Rafah, about six hundred feet away from the border with Egypt. She writes: “Today [Jan. 23] at about 2:00 am, we woke up to the sound of successive explosions. All night we couldn’t sleep, and were scared and worried. We were thinking, ‘This may be an Israeli incursion to our region.’ In the morning we discovered the cause of the explosions: armed groups destroying the border between Egypt and Palestine.” Amid the general elation about the freedom of movement, she says, is a haunting feeling that there will be repercussions for breaking down the wall.

On Tuesday morning, the CRS receptionist in Gaza described her family’s struggles during the electrical cutoff and blockade on heating fuel: “Last night, my sister was preparing for today’s exam at her college. It was very hard for her to concentrate on her study due to the severe cold and the weak light of the gas lamp, which ran out after few hours. My father, my brothers and some neighbors were sitting in groups listening to the news.”

Egypt is allowing Gazans to cross the border and buy food and supplies; many of these Palestinians are returning to their homes in Gaza, but some say they won’t. As Middle Eastern, U.S. and UN leaders decide what to do next, CRS is closely monitoring the situation and preparing its staff in Jerusalem and Gaza to deal with the impact of these difficult days in Gaza.