I recently accompanied CRS-Lebanon Country Representative, Mindy Burrell, on a number of visits to Members of Congress to discuss the political and humanitarian situation in Lebanon. These Capitol Hill visits are an important part of CRS’ advocacy strategy because they allow us to share our on-the-ground perspective with policymakers who are driving our foreign policy.

Mindy described how she first arrived in Lebanon on a transport plane in the midst of the 2006 conflict with Israel because it was the only one that could land on the damaged runway. In response to the conflict, CRS used $12 million in aid provided by the U.S. government and other donors to assist 250,000 Lebanese victims from all faiths in 200 villages throughout the country. Working with local partners including Caritas-Lebanon, CRS organized vouchers for crops and livestock to restore lost incomes, construction projects for buildings damaged in the war, and summer camps for children traumatized by violence.
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Mark Schnellbaecher, Regional Director for CRS in Europe and the Middle East, writes from Iraq:

I’ve been the last seven days in Baghdad, lodging in a Chaldean Catholic convent in a Shiite neighborhood across from the green zone. The two nuns here – protected round the clock by guards of their own choosing who are paid by the Iraqi government – leave their small compound only to go to the market or to Mass. The 20 orphan girls under their care were taken to the relative safety of northern Iraq late last year. My colleague and I didn’t get much sleep in the convent, some combination of the low-flying helicopters all night long and the non-stop generator.
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Congressman Bob Inglis (R-South Carolina) meets with Gazan youth at a park near Jabalia in Gaza. Photo by LeAnn Hager/CRS

On Tuesday April 7, U.S. Representatives Stephen Lynch (D-Mass) and Bob Inglis (R-South Carolina) visited a CRS project in Gaza as they assessed humanitarian needs following January’s conflict. The congressmen visited Al Sheikh Zayed park, located between Jabalia Camp and the Beit Lahia neighborhood. The park, which was created by the Palestinian Authority several years ago, was damaged during the bombing. If materials become available, CRS hopes to rehabilitate it and other community spaces.
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Photojournalist David Snyder, on assignment for CRS, sent this report from Lebanon.

A view of the Zeatrieh neighborhood of Beirut, which has become a magnet for Iraqi refugees fleeing to Lebanon. Photo by David Snyder for CRS

I spent the day today in Beirut, meeting with Iraqi refugees receiving assistance through the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center. It’s not my first time here, nor is it my first time with the staff of the center. I was in Lebanon in 2006, when fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants displaced tens of thousands here. Caught up in the conflict, thousands of migrant workers, many of them Sri Lankan, flocked to the Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center for help. For days I watched as the staff worked to process paperwork for panicked and frightened workers, seeking to flee the country.

Today the tide is moving in reverse. With support from Catholic Relief Services, Caritas is helping Iraqi refugees, headed through Lebanon, bound for anywhere but back to Iraq. I met families today in the neighborhood of Zeatrieh – a cramped network of side streets that houses hundreds of Iraqi families. Most have little, some have nothing, and almost all have overstayed the visas that helped them escape Iraq.
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CRS Regional Information Officer Laura Sheahan sends this report on aid to Gaza.

On February 5, CRS began distributing parcels of canned food, blankets, hygiene items and more to thousands of needy people in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
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CRS goods like canned tuna, biscuits, blankets and candles began arriving in Gaza on Sunday, February 1. Packages will be distributed to 1500 war-affected families in Gaza. Photo by CRS staff

As families in the war-torn Gaza Strip struggle to get by without essentials, CRS trucks containing food like tuna and urgently needed non-food items like blankets arrived in Gaza on Sunday.

Ninety-six pallets of humanitarian aid items passed through the border crossing at Kerem Shalom (in the south of Gaza). They were delivered to warehouses in Rafah and Middle Area in preparation for distributions that will take place this week.

An additional 54 pallets of aid items are in the logistics pipeline and are expected to be transported to North Gaza within the next 10 days. The items will help at least 1500 vulnerable families start to rebuild their lives following January’s violence.

With fighting continuing in the Gaza Strip, our prayers are with our colleagues in Gaza and Israel.

A morning press release updates information about our response:

“As the conflict in Gaza and Southern Israel continues, Catholic Relief Services will provide 500 war-affected families in Gaza with desperately needed food and other humanitarian relief supplies. With a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development and $100,000 from its American donors, CRS will distribute food, hygiene items, blankets, candles, and other essentials.”

Here is the complete press release.

Reprinted courtesy Vatican Information Services.

VATICAN CITY, 4 JAN 2009 (VIS) – After the Angelus the Pope invited all to pray for an end to the war in Gaza, recalling that hatred and war do not resolve problems.

“Today, in all the churches of the Holy Land, the patriarchs and leaders of the Christian churches of Jerusalem invite the faithful to pray for an end to the conflict in the Gaza Strip and implore justice and peace for their land. I join with them and ask you to do the same, remembering, as they are saying, ‘the victims, the wounded, those with broken hearts, who are living in anguish and fear, that God bless them with consolation, patience, and the peace that proceeds from Him”.
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Omar Shaban is CRS project manager in Gaza. Nicknamed “Mayor of Gaza” by friends and colleagues, Omar joined CRS in 2001. Photo by Kat Burnside/CRS

We spoke by phone this morning with CRS Gaza project manager Omar Shaban, who at the moment is living outside Gaza City.

We called to see how he and his family are faring following the recent bombings.

First, Omar assured us his family is doing well under the circumstances. They’re in a rural area outside Gaza City and, so far, removed from areas being targeted for bombing.

In the coming days and weeks, a chief concern for Omar and other CRS staff will be how to get aid to people who most need it. There’s no question the need will be great given what Omar has seen since Gaza bombings began Saturday.

Omar said he’d gone out earlier in the day and found shops and banks closed. He said Gazans lack basic food supplies such as flour and cooking oil. Power is unavailable in many areas, so even with supplies, cooking can be difficult to impossible.

Omar asked us to please “say ‘hi’ to everyone in Baltimore and the U.S.” Our thoughts and prayers are with him, his wife Sohair and their two sons Salam and Nour.

CRS Program Manager Sahar Shaat writes from Gaza:

We are OK , but we are still worried and expect worse and worse. The situation is more tense this time. Everything is sad and awful.

My parents and I live very close to the Palestinian-Egyptian border. We were forced to leave our home seeking peace and safety. We moved to my elder brother’s home, about 20 persons are taking shelter in a small apartment without electricity or cooking gas.

CRS maintains three offices in the West Bank (in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron) and one in Gaza City.