In his latest monthly dispatch, Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services, looks at the current economic crisis from the perspective of working poor in developing nations.

As we Americans watch the financial crisis unfold, and our investments and retirement accounts plunge in value day by day, many of us are approaching the New Year with an overwhelming sense of fear and helplessness.

We are beginning to reassess plans we’ve made, wondering whether we’ve saved enough for retirement or college tuitions. And in our neighborhoods and communities, we are seeing signs of economic stress. People are out of work. Auction signs are sprouting up in front of foreclosed homes. And food pantries are reporting depleted stocks as demand for their services rises.
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Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for East Africa, is currently attending Sphere training in Nairobi, Kenya. She describes a field visit in this post.

More than 500 Maasai people benefit from the 16,000-liter water tank that supports both domestic use and livestock watering. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.

Yesterday it was time to apply our Sphere training in the field. Ideally we would have visited an emergency response site, but instead we visited a water development project. This decision helped to avoid raising expectations or creating a disruption at a camp for Kenyans displaced earlier in the year by post-election violence.

We traveled in buses three hours south to a community near Kijiado. This semi-arid region is populated primarily by the Maasai—a nomadic ethnic group that herds cattle, sheep and goats as their primary source of food and income.

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Debbie DeVoe, CRS’ regional information officer for East Africa, is currently attending a Sphere training in Nairobi, Kenya. She briefly explains field challenges in this post.

Today was eye-opening. After learning about the minimum standards for each sector—water and sanitation, food, shelter and health—as well as measurable indicators to assess attainment, it was time to try to put the standards into practice.

Separate sanitation facilities for men and women are critical for health and security during emergencies. The facilities also allow for privacy, as in this camp in Eldoret at the Eldoret faigrounds in Kenya. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS.

Workshop leaders provided us with a real-world scenario: the current situation of a camp housing 2,700 people displaced by years of violence in Somalia. These displaced people live on private land. Unlike at other camps nearby, the residents don’t have to pay rent, but the land owner demands that they purchase household supplies from his shop. Water is trucked in, and four tents serve as UNICEF classrooms. The most pressing problem is a lack of toilets, as the landlord doesn’t want latrines built on his land.

We took on the roles of the displaced people, the landlord, government agents and aid workers trying to assist. Conversation was spirited as each group of stakeholders shared their opinions. Coming up with initial actions was far from easy—and this was in a classroom setting.

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Catholic News Services published a report in which a Vatican official, citing the global economic crisis, urges wealthy nations not to cut development aid.

“Although many nations may be tempted to cut development aid in the midst of the international financial crisis, the crisis itself shows that an economic system focused only on making money for financial investors is bound to fail,” said Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

The news service said Martino invited financial and development experts to the Vatican to discuss the current economic crisis and its impact on the poor.

Dear Friend,

As we Americans watch the financial crisis unfold, and our investments and retirement accounts plunge in value day by day, many of us are feeling an overwhelming sense of fear and helplessness.

We are beginning to reassess plans we’ve made, wondering whether we’ve saved enough for retirement or college tuitions. And in our neighborhoods and communities, we are seeing signs of economic stress. People are out of work. Auction signs are sprouting up in front of foreclosed homes. And food pantries are reporting depleted stocks as demand for their services rises.

This is a time of great uncertainty and anxiety. But imagine how much worse it would be if we could not afford basic food for our families. If we had to tell our kids, “There will be no dinner tonight—maybe we can eat something at breakfast tomorrow.”

This is what life is like for the working poor in sub-Saharan Africa. Poor families in places like Burkina Faso typically spend more than three-quarters of their income just on food. A sack of rice in this West African country that cost $28 this past January is now going for more than $50—more than a day laborer makes in a month. And the global food crisis, combined with the world economic meltdown, is only going to make things worse.

With the current economic turmoil, the plight of the world’s hungry people is getting much less attention in the media. And with hundreds of billions of dollars devoted to bailing out huge corporations, foreign assistance directed toward the poor will likely be a candidate for budget cuts.

We are feeling the stress at Catholic Relief Services. The increased cost of food and fuel, combined with the devaluation of the dollar, has made our work more challenging. We are calling upon the resiliency and creativity of our staff to strategically cut back in some areas and stretch our budget as far as we can. But there is one thing we will never sacrifice, and that is our mission: serving the poorest and most vulnerable people overseas.

We will continue to do what we have been doing. We’ll just have to do it smarter.

Throughout our 65-year history, the people of CRS have risen to the challenges before us. And we’ve learned how to do things better, more effectively and more efficiently.

It was 10 years ago that we faced a daunting task in responding to the devastation left by Hurricane Mitch, which tore through Central America, leaving 10,000 people dead, destroying crops and leveling houses. The need was overwhelming, and CRS was one of the first humanitarian agencies to respond.

It was in the wake of this tragedy that we refined the way we respond to disasters. We established a three-pronged approach. Our first focus is on saving lives and responding to immediate needs: providing food, water and shelter, as well as other basic necessities. But then we focus on development. The second prong is helping people rebuild their livelihoods and get back to work. The community’s involvement in their own recovery then becomes the third prong. Once the rebuilding is done, self-sustaining community organizations take over, preparing residents for future disasters so they will be more resilient and can act as their own first responders.

These were important lessons that we employed for subsequent emergencies, including the Indian Ocean tsunami. And it is this kind of insight, ingenuity and ability to adapt that will help us to get through this economic crisis and emerge as an even stronger, more efficient and more effective agency—better able to fulfill our mission. And we will do this in partnership with the American Catholic community, whose continued generosity we need and appreciate now more than ever.

Thank you for your continued support and your prayers.

Ken Hackett

President