Photo of the Week Archive

Residents from the Chhatisdebil village in Orissa, India, hold a mock drill on disaster preparedness. Chhatisdebil is one of 75 villages along the highly vulnerable coastal belt of Orissa. The Community Based Disaster Preparedness Project, supported by Catholic Relief Services, assists villages in a comprehensive flood preparedness program. Photo by Amiran White for CRS

Colombia Health Clinic

Amparra Arce Overasoma, age 10, of the Colombian indigenous group Embera Katio, receives nutritional assistance from the Tambo health clinic, which is supported by Catholic Relief Services. Malnutrition is a real and ongoing problem facing some indigenous populations, partially brought on because people can’t rely on corn and other harvested foods due to the [...]

Helping Hands in Chihuahua

Nestled along the Sierra Madre forests in Chihuahua, Mexico, the Tarahumara face numerous struggles. Their land rights have been challenged, their forest depleted by logging, and they face increased malnutrition and scarcity of food supply. The Farmer Justice Campaign, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services Mexico, has partnered with the local organization, Frente Democratico Campesino or [...]

Operation Rice Bowl Fights Hunger

Fourth-grade students at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart School in Baltimore, MD, hold cardboard rice bowls used to raise money for Catholic Relief Services’ annual Operation Rice Bowl program. ORB helps Catholics raise awareness and funds to fight global hunger. Each Lent, Catholic parishes, schools and families from more than 13,000 communities use symbolic [...]

Combating Malnutrition in Guatemala

Community leader Edwin Roblero Barios prepares rations of oil for a food distribution in the Sanajaba community in the northern highlands of San Marcos, Guatemala. Expectant women and mothers with children under three years of age receive supplemental food rations and attend workshops that promote proper childhood development. Photo by Sara A. Fajardo/CRS

Malawian Farmers Fend Off Drought

Bunson Ngozo of Malawi works on farmland that he has cultivated using irrigation equipment and technical expertise provided by Catholic Relief Services and our partner agency, the Catholic Development Commission. Teaching farmers better growing techniques helps them to improve their crops and make them resistant to drought and other natural emergencies. Photo by David Snyder [...]

Clean Water in the Sudan

The Makuach Water System in Bor County of South Sudan provides the surrounding community and health clinic with access to clean, fresh water. CRS rehabilitated an overhead tank and existing borehole. A solar panel provides electricity to pump water from the borehole to a holding tank, which releases water to local taps twice daily. Photo [...]

New Direction for HIV Care in Zambia

Dr. Kazadi Mwayabo, a coordinator for the CRS-led AIDSRelief program in Zambia, is leading an HIV program that’s transitioning from CRS to a local partner control. According to UNAIDS, 15.2 percent of Zambians between the ages of 15 and 49 are HIV-positive. In the fall of 2009, Dr. Kazadi spoke at the St. Kilian Catholic [...]

Immigrants in Houston Help Their Hometown

Carmen Amaya waits for customers in a tourism center’s cafeteria in the El Salvadoran community of Olomega. The center was built with help of former Olomega residents now residing in Houston, Texas. The group has sent over a quarter million dollars to Olomega to help fund projects as varied as computer labs, a Catholic church, [...]

Farmers Save Crops with Hand-Held Computers

Today the Great Lakes Cassava Initiative, led by Catholic Relief Services and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is helping farmers in Kenya and five other countries in Africa’s Great Lakes grow disease resistant cassava plants and monitor their crops with mini, hand-held computers designed by Microsoft. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS