A woman signs her information form on an smart phone at a CRS seed fair in Kaga Bandoro, Central African Republic. CRS tested a barcode tracking system in June 2011 to see if it was a more efficient and effective way to register and track people helped by the agency. Photo by Sandra Basgall/CRS
By Helen Blakesley
What brings together more than 170 people, from 5 continents, 34 countries and over 64 organizations, in a room in a hotel in the Rwandan capital of Kigali? Speed dating. Seriously. But all in the name of technology and development.
I feel I should explain. If we were going from table to table listening to someone’s alluring spiel, it was because we were at the 4th CRS Global ICT4D Conference, discovering the latest innovations in Information Communications and Technology for Development.
I’d been dispatched to the conference with instructions to “unleash my inner geek”. My concern was, did I have one? I own nothing prefixed with an ‘i’. I’m a firm believer that you can’t beat the feel and smell of a real book between your hands and I’ve never downloaded a song in my life. My techie credentials were not looking good. Still, off I went, to explore this new frontier, with absolutely no idea what to expect.
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Posted
April 10th, 2012 in
Africa, Rwanda by:
John Lindner |
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While 75 percent of Operation Rice Bowl contributions support CRS’ programs around the world, 25 percent remains in the United States to fund local diocesan hunger and poverty alleviation efforts. In the Diocese of Arlington, VA, a portion of local Operation Rice Bowl funds supports Feed My Sheep. Feed My Sheep provides emergency food assistance to families in rural Virginia.
Listen to the World Report here.
Posted
April 5th, 2012 in
by:
John Lindner |
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During Lent, Catholic Relief Services and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops encourage you to participate in weekly ‘tiny retreats’ — or five-minute reflections — to better lead you to solidarity with your brothers and sisters around the world.
Among those who work for social change, healthy zeal can easily be accompanied by impatience. When change is slow in coming, doubts creep in like the taunting voices in the narratives of Jesus’ passion. “What can just a few of you hope to accomplish?” they sneer. “The rest of the world isn’t going to change. You’re working so hard for nothing; it’s everyone else who is the problem.”
The solution is community, especially the community of faith. When doubt seeks to paralyze and isolate us, we can lean on the community during the Mass, even when our own mouths are too dry with doubts to say the prayers. We can reach for Eucharist when just about all we can manage to do is show up. And the community of faith, that communion of God and God’s people, strengthens us in prayer when our own faith seems challenged or weak. Read more.
Posted
April 2nd, 2012 in
by:
Patrick Carney |
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Sean Callahan, CRS executive vice president for overseas operations, recently traveled to South Sudan to witness first-hand the state of the new nation and Catholic Relief Services’ work there. Here are some of his reflections on peace and the role of the Church:
When South Sudan gained independence from its northern neighbor last year, it was a moment of tremendous victory for the new nation. But nine months after secession, the country—counted among the most impoverished in the world—continues to face significant challenges.
Tensions and violence on the border with Sudan remain, especially in the areas of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and the border itself has not yet been demarcated. In recent weeks, there have been concerns over oil revenue, with the South accusing the North of stealing its oil—subsequently shutting down all production. Since this is the major source of income for the government of South Sudan, it has put into place austerity measures, which could hamper development efforts.
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Posted
April 2nd, 2012 in
Africa, Peacebuilding, South Sudan, Sudan by:
John Lindner |
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Mercedes Hernandez Valdez is a volunteer with Caritas Cubana and runs a soup kitchen in San Agustin parish in Havana. CRS works in Cuba through Caritas Cubana to tend the needs of the most vulnerable. Photo by Robyn Fieser/CRS
By Robyn Fieser
With 18 percent of its 11 million people over the age of 60, Cuba is the country in Latin America with the second largest concentration of elderly people.
That is due in part to the country’s health care system and longer life expectancies, low birth rates, and a good amount of emigration without the counterbalancing immigration. In other words, while plenty of people leave Cuba, most of them younger. There isn’t a lot of immigration into the country to take their place. Meanwhile, the population is getting older and living longer.
For more than 20 years, Caritas Cubana has made it a priority to help care for Cuba’s elderly, who tend to be poor and marginalized. Some 7,000 volunteers throughout the country’s 11 dioceses work together to make life a little easier for older people, many of whom live alone and struggle to make ends meet on the small pensions they receive.
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Posted
March 27th, 2012 in
Cuba, Latin America, Pope by:
John Lindner |
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By Robin Fieser
The Pope arrives in Havana on Tuesday and the old city’s cobblestone streets are teeming with camera-toting tourists eagerly awaiting his arrival. Hotel lobbies are bustling, restaurants are hopping, and a fleet of 1950s American cars cruises up and down Havana’s main streets shuttling tourists from one sight to the next.
Far from the tourist center is A La Mar, an urban enclave created in the early 1960s for supporters of the revolution. A La Mar was originally designed as a new city for the “new man” of the revolution, based on communist and atheist ideas. Today, it is a “bedroom community” with no jobs, no services, bad transportation and widespread poverty, said Father Isidro Hoyos.
Our friends from Caritas Cubana took me there this weekend to show me a program for people with Down syndrome. Each Saturday for three hours, 18 children with Down syndrome and their families — mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers — meet at Father Hoyos’ parish house in A La Mar to share their experiences and learn from one another.
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Posted
March 26th, 2012 in
Cuba, LACRO, Pope by:
John Lindner |
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Men prepare the land for planting as part of a CRS Cash-For-Work project in Jougola, Dogondoutchi district in Niger. Photo by Tahirou Gouro/CRS
“It takes a trained eye to see when someone is poorer than poor in Niger. People are living in a harsh environment, it’s a semi-desert, many households can seem badly off at the best of times. But this year, I noticed a change,” said Jean-Marie Adrian, Catholic Relief Services regional director for West Africa.
“A very simple thing struck me. Usually, during the dry season, people weave straw together to make new granaries or they repair the holes in their old ones. But as I drove past villages this time, I saw very few of these new circular constructions. Many had collapsed, with no effort to repair them … because there had been no harvest that needed storing.”
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Posted
March 26th, 2012 in
Africa, Emergency Response, Niger, Sahel by:
John Lindner |
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At the heart of social justice is the skill of analysis. It is not enough to know that people are hungry, for example. It is essential to know why and to build a response that embraces the complexities of culture, class and community. Opting for the poor means being educated by people in poverty about their needs and responding in wise and informed ways.
During Lent, Catholic Relief Services and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops encourage you to participate in weekly ‘tiny retreats’— or five-minute reflections — to better lead you to solidarity with your brothers and sisters around the world.
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Posted
March 26th, 2012 in
by:
Patrick Carney |
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Catholic students in Timor-Leste pray at the kick-off march for a three and a half month long campaign, led by CRS and the local Catholic Church, for peaceful national elections. Photo by Darren Hercyk/CRS
By Darren Hercyk
During the first week of Lent, Catholic Relief Services in East Timor, along with the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Dili, launched a program called “111 Days of Prayer for a Peaceful and Democratic Election in Timor-Leste.”
Our goal is to provide Timorese society—which is 96% Catholic—with daily prayers and reflections before and during the upcoming national elections in March and June. This nation has seen its share of violence in the past. With prayer, we hope never to go backwards.
To kick off the campaign, we helped organize a march in the capital of Dili, and thought that maybe a thousand people would show up. It was so overwhelming to see almost 10,000 Timorese turn out—in the heat of the day under threatening skies—for the two-and-a-half-hour “Journey for Peace” walk that day.
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Posted
March 23rd, 2012 in
Asia, East Timor, Timor Leste by:
John Lindner |
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Tamil children learn letters, numbers, songs and dances at a preschool in northwest Sri Lanka. Jesuit Refugee Services runs several such preschools with funding from Catholic Relief Services. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS
By Laura Sheahen,
“When the bombing was bad, we didn’t go to school. We were in the bunker,” says 10-year-old Anthony.* “I put my fingers in my ears to shut out the shelling.”
Huddled in a hole dug quickly in the ground, with sandbags to protect them from blasts and tree branches screening their “bunker” from view, Anthony and his mother waited hours with their neighbors until the bombing stopped. Across northern Sri Lanka, thousands of children were doing the same thing, over and over, day after day.
A decades-long civil war in this island nation near India brought tremendous suffering to both sides. It also robbed children of an education. Bombardments destroyed schools and frequent evacuations uprooted students. Eventually, even makeshift classes held under trees became impossible.
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Posted
March 23rd, 2012 in
Asia, Education, Sri Lanka by:
John Lindner |
1 Comment »
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